


I swore I knew the melody (that I heard you singing)

by rileynoah, salamadersaurus_rex



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - High School Musical Fusion, F/F, M/M, Multi, Slow Burn, nb!vasquez, trans!Winn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-01-21 04:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12449568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileynoah/pseuds/rileynoah, https://archiveofourown.org/users/salamadersaurus_rex/pseuds/salamadersaurus_rex
Summary: Maggie Sawyer is new to National City East High. On her first day, she runs into Alex Danvers - star of the East High Wildcats - and the girl she happened to kiss on New Years Eve.orThe High School Musical AU that no-one asked for, but we all deserve.





	1. Something New

**Author's Note:**

> So I (riley) have been harping on this idea for freaking forever and I finally found someone with the same enthusiasm for High School Musical as me, and so now Rex and I present to you our love child. We love them very much, and we hope you do too. Rex made terrible jokes, I was a sarcastic binch, and timezones are homophobic BUT WE MADE IT! Updates will probably be irregular but we're here, we're queer, and we're having a great time.
> 
> AN: Betty was originally called Bitchass however we couldn't settle on the original gaelic spelling (Beitidh) so it's Betty now. Petty Betty.

There are plenty of pleasurable ways to wake up on New Year’s Eve Alex knows. Her excitable younger alien sister taking a flying leap at her bed isn’t one of them. 

Kara lands with a thump and the weight of a steel T bar on top of her, already rambling in her ear about the new snowfall and the bank shot she had been practicing well after Alex had gone to bed last night.

Alex has to call her name three times before Kara realises she’s struggling to get out from under her.

“Oh! Sorry, Alex!” Kara apologises. She rolls off to the side to settle on the mattress next to Alex, who promptly rolls over to go back to sleep. 

“I’m just so excited!” Kara barges on. “I finally got that shot right last night, I even did it off the glass backboard _and_ it’s still intact. And the new snow is so pretty! Can we go back out to snowboard again today?”

Alex’s sleepy protest about how Kara wasn’t _actually_ snowboarding, rather floating an inch off the ground, is lost in Kara babbling about how she wants to perfect the reverse layup because James always blocks her regular layups at practice. 

“And then Winn said that- Oh, Winn!” A slight gust of wind is all that remains of her sister when Kara races off, presumably to wake up poor Winn sleeping two rooms down. 

Letting out a content sigh, Alex snuggles back under the comforter, intent on enjoying at least another hour of sleep. But before she can even think about dozing off, Kara reappears with a sleep-rumpled Winn in tow, still rambling at full speed.

Alex cracks an eye and checks the clock on the night stand. It’s barely six in the morning. She grumbles wordlessly, trying to burrow further into her pillows.

“Kara it’s 6am on New Year’s Eve. We all have to stay up until at least midnight tonight and not all of us are aliens.” Alex complains. “In fact, you’re the _only_ alien.”

“But Alex now we have so much more time to do stuff! We should go out and snowboard first before it gets all crowded and-“ Kara grimaces “loud, and then we can come inside and practice some more before we have lunch with Eliza.”

Alex groans at the reminder of lunch with her mom. She’d really much prefer staying in bed until midday and then snowboarding to her heart’s content. But she knows that Kara loves going out onto the slopes with her, and doing it when there are less people around makes it much easier on Kara’s super-senses. She sits up, albeit reluctantly, and picks the sleep from the corner of her eye.

“Okay, okay.” She placates. “I’m awake.”

Kara cheers, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Okay, Winn and I will go get ready and meet you at the ski lift station?” 

Alex makes a noise that sounds faintly like an agreement. Kara accepts it without issue, cheering again as she drags Winn back out of the room, the poor kid still disoriented. 

For a brief second, Alex considers lying down and going back to sleep, snowboarding be damned. But she’d be lying if she said she wouldn’t move mountains for her enthusiastic little sister. So she drags herself out of bed and into the bathroom to start getting ready for the day.

* * *

It was their first year back at Jarvis Bay Ski Resort after Jeremiah died. On the first New Years after, it had been too fresh. Alex and Eliza’s memories of every year before proving to be too much to return. But this year, Kara had asked, and Alex knew that she wanted to face up to the memories this place held. Her mom almost acted like she wanted to forget him, but Alex wanted to remember his presence, and the memories they had made here together. 

She sits on the far left bench, somehow earlier than Kara and Winn. She pulls off her glove and sticks it between her teeth, feeling under the bench for the tiny carving her dad had left the day they’d waited for the fog to clear at the top of the mountain. _DWH._ Danvers Was Here. 

The doors whoosh open, sucking in a blast of cold air and her little sister. Winn follows, weighed down under both their snowboards and tracking snow all over the floor. Alex hurries over to help, grabbing Kara’s board and tossing it at her.

“Just in time for the first gondola!” Kara squeals, pointing at the huge wall clock hanging over the stairs. 

Alex takes Winn’s hand and together they hurry up the stairs with Kara in the lead. She bounces into a seat at the front, eyes wide and excited as she takes in the glint of the sun off the fresh snowfall. 

“Girls only gondola,” the lift guy says, making sure nothing can get stuck in the doors. “You three have fun!”

Winn flinches as the doors slide shut, arm stiff when Alex elbows it. With a clank, the gondola starts to move, swinging forward with the momentum. Kara’s humming Run The World, and she grins at Winn. “We’re gonna run the mountain!”

“Nothing to be scared of,” Alex promises Winn, worried by the way the kid’s sat hunched in the corner seat like something’s off. 

“It’s not… never mind.”

“You wanna start with something easier?” Alex asks, shooting Kara a look when her face drops. 

Winn just shrugs. The three of them fall silent, the only sounds the clanking of the gondola and the rushing of the wind. The rising sun bounces off the pristine snow, the sky turning from dark blue to yellow and orange, dawn haloing the mountain’s peak. 

Kara’s the first out when the lift stops, taking a running leap into the deep snow with a whoop. Alex and Winn follow more gingerly, Alex carrying both their boards until they find their footing. Winn nearly trips over Kara where she lies on her back making snow angels, a huge grin on her face. 

“C’mon Winn!” Kara yells, holding out her hand and blithely ignoring Winn’s grimace.

“I don’t want to get my butt wet.”

Kara pouts. “Booo. Alex?”

Alex rolls her eyes. “I thought you wanted to get up here early and pretend to snowboard?”

“We’re the first people to stand on this snow. It’s like we’re Lance Armstrong and Buzz Lightyear!”

“ _Neil_ Armstrong didn’t make moon angels,” Winn points out. 

“Neither did Buzz _Aldrin,_ ” Alex flops down next to Kara. 

“Whatever,” Kara says, rolling over and faceplanting into the snow to make her next snow angel. “They weren’t even the first on the moon, there are aliens there.”

Winn chokes, dropping a half finished snowball onto the growing pile just out of Kara and Alex’s reach. “Excuse me?”

Kara nods, her snow angel suddenly gaining a top hat. “There are aliens on every planet in your solar system. Except Pluto.”

“Poor Pluto,” Alex muses. “Always getting the shit end of the stick.”

Kara catches sight of Winn, who looks about ready to faint, and cackles. “I love being an alien.”

Winn frowns, discreetly picks up a snowball. “Oh yeah?”

Kara nods, rolls onto one elbow with a big smile until _thwack._

“For Pluto!” Winn yells, grabbing another snowball and launching it at Kara. 

Kara splutters, shaking her head violently and flinging snow everywhere. She scoops up a handful of snow, packs it hard and hurls it at Winn who dodges, happy laugh carrying out over the mountain. 

Kara gasps as something hits her back, a look of utter betrayal on her face as she turns to Alex. “Et tu, Brute?”

Alex just grins and pelts Kara with another snowball. She gestures wildly at Winn, who grins and starts packing more snow. “Me and Winn are on the same team.”

“Two against one isn’t fair!”

“Two humans against one alien is _perfectly_ fair.”

Winn’s grin drops suddenly, the familiar clanking of the gondola behind the sisters sudden and loud. 

“We’ve got company,” Winn hisses.

The door slides open revealing a young brunette just as Kara hurls a snowball at Alex, skimming past her ear and straight for the girl. Winn freezes, Kara’s face contorting in slow motion as she watches the ball of packed snow hurtle towards the stranger. Alex turns, her confusion turning to shock as all three of them wait for impact.

It never comes, the girl gracefully dodging the snowball that smacks against the far gondola window instead. 

“I’m so sorry!” Kara squeaks, blushing almost as hard as Alex who’s staring at the girl with her mouth hanging open. 

The girl just waves her hand, tossing her board onto the snow and clicking one boot into it. “Don’t mind me, proceed.”

And with that she kicks off and snowboards away, Alex staring after her until she’s nothing more than a speck in the distance. Winn appears at Alex’s side, handing her her board. 

“Alex, that’s gay.”

“You gonna go after her, lovebird?” Kara teases. 

Alex scoffs and kicks snow at Kara. She crams her helmet on over her hair and sits down to stick her boots to her board. She’s sailing off before Winn and Kara can even react, shouting over her shoulder “last one to the bottom is a massive dork!”

Kara laughs and helps Winn onto the board before leaping onto her own. She grabs Winn’s hand, the two of them making their way slowly, shakily down the mountain. “Come on, we’ll go down together. Alex already knows she’s the biggest dork she’s just in denial.”

* * *

It’s not long before Winn tires out, feet dragging through the snow at the bottom of the hill. Alex and Kara race back to the gondola, joining the now larger queue to ride back up the mountain. 

Winn spots Eliza seated just inside the glass doors of the resort, book open and steaming mug in her hands. She must have come to watch them after she had realised they were gone. It puts a smile on Winn’s face. Trudging inside, Winn ditches as many layers as possible before joining Eliza at her table.

“How was it, honey?” She asks, book closed and pushed aside. Winn lets out a slight groan, collapsing into the chair dramatically.

“Tiring.” Winn says.

Eliza grins. “Keeping up with a kryptonian and her competitive sister can be. You stay here.”

She disappears into the crowd of people by the far wall, all vying for their turn at the various beverage machines. Winn isn’t sure how she does it, but barely a few minutes pass before Eliza is making her way back over holding the most decadently over the top hot chocolate Winn has ever seen. 

“This will help.” She smiles kindly, watching as Winn gorges on the whipped cream piled well over the lip of the mug.

“Thanks Eliza.” Winn sighs contently, fingertips already warming on the heated ceramic.

“Anything for my girls.” Eliza replies, a soft look in her eye that has Winn’s heart fluttering. Which is an odd feeling in combination with a churning stomach. 

Winn gulps a mouthful of hot chocolate down, eyes dropping down to count the rainbow sprinkles atop the whipped cream anxiously. Eliza, who would later claim that “a mother always knows” picks up on Winn’s distress immediately. 

“What’s up, baby girl?” Eliza’s concern makes Winn’s heart and stomach clench for two entirely different reasons. Looking up at her, and seeing the woman that had been more of a mother to Winn than Betty Schott ever was.

“I uh-“ Winn gulps. “I don’t think that I am.”

Eliza tilts her head, her silence beckoning Winn to continue.

“A girl, t-that is. I’m not a girl.” Winn’s chest heaves in relief, and the words come easier. “I’m a boy.”

There’s a moment of silence where he thinks the whole world might come crashing down. Where the family that had taken care of him after his father had been arrested might reject him. Might not accept Winn for who he is.

But then Eliza smiles. She grins, with just the barest hint of tears in the corners of her eyes. She leans onto the table, lowering her voice just enough to make it seem like the whole world had fallen silent around them. 

“Well, it’s nice to have such a brave, handsome young man around.” 

Winn almost knocks both of their drinks over in his haste to get around the table. Eliza stands and braces herself as Winn barrels into her, wrapping his arms around her torso in a fierce hug. 

“I love you so much, sweetie.” Eliza whispers into his hair. “And so do Alex and Kara. Whenever you’re ready to tell them.” 

Winn pulls away from Eliza. “You think so?” He wipes his face with trembling fingers.

“I know so, Winn- you still want to use Winn?”

Winn nods and he wonders if it’s possible for your face to split open from smiling too hard. 

“Alright. If you ever need help with the medical side of things, you can always come to me, okay?” Eliza cups both of his cheeks in her hands, tilting his head so that she can look him in the eye. Winn nods tearfully and sniffles loudly. 

“Now, drink your hot chocolate before it goes cold, young man.” She ushers him back to the other side of the table, watching fondly as he attacks his drink with more enthusiasm than before. 

They can hear the playful bickering before Alex and Kara even come into view. Winn can tell immediately that they’re racing, with Kara in front by a tiny margin. Eliza chuckles as several other pairs of eyes inside the cafe area turn to watch the two teenagers barrel down the final slope, skidding to a halt and spraying snow up onto the glass wall. 

They argue all the way inside, kicking their boots off on the way. Alex drags two extra chairs up to the table while Kara goes off in search of drinks for the both of them. 

“Who won?” Eliza asks.

“I did. Kara cheated.” Alex huffs. She sprawls in the chair, arms crossed petulantly and sulks for as long as it takes Kara to return with their drinks. 

“I did not cheat, I won fair and square.” Kara says, feigning innocence when Alex pins her with a glare. 

“She says while using super-hearing to eavesdrop.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Alex and Kara bicker back and forth for a moment before Kara straightens up, glancing at the clock over the fireplace. 

“We have a few hours before we have to get ready for the party tonight and I want to go practice a bit.” Kara says. She chugs the rest of her hot chocolate and stands to gather her stuff.

“Again? Seriously, you guys played for hours yesterday.” Winn complains. “Can’t we go to that Video Game Jam instead?”

Kara grimaces as she starts to pack up Alex’s things as well. “Yeah but if that girl hadn’t dodged my snowball I could have really hurt her.” 

It’s Kara’s nervous rambling that makes Winn concede, he knows how important it is for Kara to control her strength. He stands to pull his boots back on and lets Kara drag him, along with Alex, back towards their rooms. 

Kara, who cheats again by using her super-speed, is first into her kit. Followed closely by ever competitive Alex. Winn finds himself being dragged back into the hallway, towards the resort’s indoor gym. 

Rounding the final corner, Kara almost bowls straight into a girl. The same girl from that morning at the top of the mountain.

“Oh, Rao! I am so sorry.” Kara apologises, catching the brunette before she can fall. Alex hovers worriedly, hands half extended while the girl brushes herself off. To everyone’s relief, she’s laughing and seemingly not in any kind of pain.

“It’s okay.” The girl promises. “I’m fine. No harm, no foul.” 

She grins up at Kara, clearly trying to assuage any remaining fear, and then turns her gaze on Alex. She glances down at the loose drop sleeve tank top and basketball shorts both Alex and Kara had changed into and her eyes widen imperceptibly. 

“Where are you guys off to?” The girl asks, barely managing to tear her eyes away from Alex. Winn has to use his hand to cover his forming grin. 

“Uh, just to practice in the gym.” Alex jerks her thumb towards the door down the hall. 

“Well, I won’t hold you up.” The girl smiles again. “Have fun.”

“Thanks! And sorry again…” Kara trails off.

“Maggie.” The girl- Maggie- fills in. 

“Sorry again, Maggie! I hope we don’t keep meeting like this.” 

Maggie nods. “I hope not either.” 

Winn doesn’t miss the way her eyes snap to Alex for just a moment before returning to Kara. She smiles at all of them again before excusing herself, jogging away down the hall. 

“She’s really nice.” Kara says. 

“Yeah, hopefully you stop almost breaking her.” Alex snarks, brushing past Kara to walk into the gym. She snags a basketball from the rack by the door and jogs towards the hoop by the far wall. 

“Of course.” Kara smirks. “Wouldn’t want to mess up that pretty face you like to look at.”

“I’m not- I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Sure you don’t.” 

Kara super-speeds past Alex, snatching the ball from her grasp and floating up to dunk it, ignoring Alex’s indignant complaints.

“Stop cheating!”

* * *

Maggie shakes her head at the faint sounds coming from the gym, grin slowly fading as she makes her way down the corridor to the stairwell. Her room’s two floors up. Her footsteps echo as she wanders higher. She unlocks the door quietly. It’s empty, the curtains she’d left drawn flung wide open and the bright glare of the sun catches her off guard. The door joining her room to her parents’ is shut tight but Maggie’s still sure to move quietly, grabbing her wallet and a book before retreating again. 

There’s a small common room on one of the resort’s higher floors, with wide windows overlooking the mountain’s lower slopes, a rustic fireplace with a fire always burning low crowded round with overstuffed armchairs. Maggie’s only ever seen one other person in it and when she arrives it’s empty. 

She sets her book down on the red plaid armchair closest to the fire, gets herself a steaming mug of hot chocolate from the machine set in an alcove in the far wall. She’s already noticed the bookmark sticking out from between the wrong pages of her book, one of the mass-printed ones her parents’ church hands out to Sunday school kids, so she stares out the window instead. The slopes are crowded now, full of little kids and their parents falling over in the snow together. 

Maggie’d got her snowboarding out of the way before the mid afternoon rush. The slopes were always quiet in the morning, and her parents hated being out on the mountain alone. Maggie loved the silence, the freezing air biting her cheeks red when she hurtled down the mountain with her shadow stretching out behind her as she faced the morning sun. She’d kept at it until she saw her parents hand in hand waiting for a gondola, then quietly snuck off for lunch. 

She smiles to herself, turning her back on the ski school and making her way back to her armchair. She’s managed to avoid her parents the entire day, and if she’s lucky the only contact she’ll have is her mother’s meddling in her perfectly heterosexual novel. She’d been on page one hundred and three, where the prince was faced with the tough decision of returning to his home kingdom of Daxamia and leaving the princess behind, not ten pages earlier where he’d insulted, lied to and belittled her. Maggie balances her mug on the arm of her chair, snuggling back into the overstuffed cushions and flipping back to the right page. 

It’s nearly three hours later, the glare of the setting sun burning the pages of her book orange and gold when Maggie finally stirs. Out the window the snow glows a soft red, the long shadows of the last skiers making their way off the mountain cutting deep ruts in the scenery. The prince had returned home, forced by a deadly poison to leave the princess’ side, and leave her to pick up the pieces of her kingdom he’d left behind. 

It was a rubbish ending. Maggie yawns and stretches, her muscles stiff after sitting still for so long. She tucks her book into the pocket of her hoodie and pads out of the common room, intent on making her way to the dining room for dinner. She ducks against the wall when a couple of kids run past babbling excitedly about the New Year’s party. 

“I heard there’s going to be karaoke!”

“Yeah but you can’t sing to save your life.”

Maggie grins as the kids disappear around the corner. It’s short lived when she remembers her parents insisted she go to the party too. Something about spending time around normal kids instead of locked in her room. Chewing on her lip Maggie makes her way back to her room, dragging her feet as if she might be able to skip the party if she walks slow enough. 

Her mom has left a dress neatly laid out on her bed. The note says it matches her eyes but Maggie hates the colour, so she ignores it and walks over to the closet. She’s grateful for how cold it can get at Jarvis Bay, stuffing as many flannels as she could manage in her suitcase and her parents had only gotten slightly on her back about it. 

Maggie pulls on her comfiest, baggiest plaid shirt, crams a beanie over her messy hair. She trips out of the closet with a lighter heart than when she went in. She makes sure to hang the dress up in there to throw her parents off the scent, even for a little while. 

Maggie checks her watch when she’s finally ready. She can hear the other kids on her floor hurrying past her room, chatting excitedly about the fireworks, the food, the singing. Maggie takes a deep breath, slumps down on her perfectly made bed. She can’t stay for long, she _knows_ her mom will come check if she can’t see her at the party but she feels caught, trapped as she lies there on the bed because tomorrow, tomorrow they go home. Tomorrow they fly back to church and school and _Maggie you need to set an example._

But if all she has left without her parents is tonight… Maggie rolls off the bed, straightens her shirt and nods once to encourage herself. Opening the door a little rougher than necessary, Maggie bundles herself out into the corridor and down to the party. 

She passes the gym on the way and through the part open door she can see the cute redhead from earlier in her baggy basketball shorts, a determined grin on face as she blocks the blonde. 

“We should get ready for the party, guys,” a voice pipes up from where Maggie can’t see, and for some reason Maggie’s step gets that little bit jauntier knowing there’ll be a pretty girl at the party.

* * *

“Alex would you hurry up!” Kara bangs on the door of the bathroom. Having been ready for at least fifteen minutes, she’s starting to get a little impatient. 

Alex rolls her eyes. “You have to lower your expectations, Kara. For like the fourth time today, the rest of us are human.”

“Humans are so slow.” Kara grumbles, and Alex can hear the bedsprings creak in protest from inside the bathroom when Kara throws herself down.

It only takes her another few minutes to give up wrangling her hair into something manageable. She stalks out of the bedroom and towards the closet to find her East High Wildcats snapback. The red and white would go well with the red and black flannel she had thrown on over the top of her father’s basketball top. 

A half-dressed Winn and Kara are watching her silently from the bed as she brushes a few flyaways behind her ears. She stares back curiously.

“What?”

“Nothing.” They both chime in unison, but smile at each other conspiratorially. Alex rolls her eyes, again, and checks herself in the mirror one last time. As she takes in her entire look, dark ripped skinny jeans and high top converse included, it dawns on Alex what they were staring at. Shrugging, she turns back to smile at them.

Winn takes her spot at the mirror, doing up the last of his buttons. He’s wearing slightly baggy jeans and a dark collared shirt, he smooths down the front of it and smiles nervously when he catches Alex’s eye in the mirror.

“You look great, Winn.” She encourages quietly. Even though she doesn’t know what’s going on with him, she always knows where to pick up on it. Winn’s smile brightens in response, and he stands a little taller.

Kara hops up from the bed, joining them at the mirror, fiddling with the pink leather belt that cinches her red patterned dress. The three of them together look like some weird indie rock group. 

“Golly, am I the only girly one?” Kara laughs, flaring her skirt a little to make her point. Alex smirks as Kara twirls around, but sobers when she notices Winn’s fallen expression. She taps Kara’s bicep with the back of her hand to get her to stop. Then she turns to face Winn properly, brow furrowed in concern.

“Hey.” Alex says gently. “There’s no wrong way to be a girl.” 

What she thought might be encouraging words only serve to make Winn wince. It’s the same wince she’s seen Winn make several times over the past few days. She’s about to demand that Winn tell her what’s wrong, but the kid takes a deep shuddering breath and looks her determinedly in the eye.

“But, the thing is- um…” Winn swallows. “I’m not a girl.” 

It clicks for Alex immediately. All the winces that accompanied gendered words or phrases. The nervous fiddling with a classically male outfit. How Winn hadn’t used his full name in years. 

Kara is a little slower to catch up. “What do you mean?”

Winn takes a deep breath, but the same determined look remains as he turns to explain to Kara.

“I want to be a boy.” 

Kara tilts her head, clearly processing the information, so Alex takes a step forward. She puts her hands on Winn’s shoulders, turning him back to face her so that she can look him right in the eye.

“You are a boy.” She says fiercely, and if Winn tears up a little, she pretends not to notice. 

Kara breaks up their moment to pull Winn into a bruising hug, rambling about how proud she is, how happy she is that he told them. She doesn’t let go until Alex pries her arms away from him to get a hug of her own.

“It’s not weird?” Winn whispers in her ear. 

Alex pulls away and grabs his face between her hands. “No.” 

“No?”

“You’re always going to be my annoying kid brother, alright?”

Winn lets out a watery chuckle, and Alex hugs him one last time before pulling away and clapping him on the back.

Kara claps her hands together. “Are we ready to go now?”

Alex and Winn nod, and all three of them bundle into the hallway. Alex stays back to lock up the room as Winn and Kara set off down the hallway, following the thumping music. Kara spares a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure Alex is still far enough away before leaning in to whisper to Winn.

“You’ve left Alex all alone in the closet now.” 

Winn snorts so hard he almost chokes.

* * *

The party is well underway when Alex, Winn and Kara arrive. Loud music blares from a speaker setup in the corner, a song that has Kara immediately pulling Winn onto the dancefloor both of them grinning widely. Alex smiles at their antics, skirting the packed dancefloor in favour of finding the buffet table they’d been promised. She knows Kara always gets peckish after dancing. After doing anything, really. 

Ducking under streamers and tinsel and around balloons trailing ribbons from the ceiling, Alex hones in on the large table stacked high with party food. Making sure no one is watching, she nudges a plateful of potstickers behind the massive, glittering 2017 centrepiece. 

Bright blue and purple lights whirl around the room from a fancy setup hanging over a small, raised stage in the middle of the room. Paired with the entirely too big disco ball sending sparkles flying into every corner of the room, Alex doesn’t see Kara until her sister bounces right into her. 

Rubbing her bruised shoulder Alex points out the food table and Kara hurries off, Winn hanging back by Alex’s side. The song changes to something slower, a spotlight lighting up the small stage as a nervous looking pair of kids step up.

“Having fun?” Alex asks.

Winn nods enthusiastically. 

Alex spots an open door at the far end of the room, leading out to a wide balcony. “If it gets too much we can head outside for some fresh air.”

“Thanks, Alex.”

Winn laughs when he spots Kara heading back their way, precariously balancing three overstacked plates. He takes one of the plates and digs in, taking a big bite of cake first before anything else. 

“There’s karaoke!” Kara says excitedly. “Want to do a song with me Winn?”

Winn grimaces. He leans a little into Alex’s side. Alex rubs his back and motions Kara over. “You can enchant us all with your magical voice later, why don’t we take a breather?”

Kara nods and takes Winn’s hand, skirting him around the groups of people watching the karaoke and heading for the balcony door. Alex is following behind them, distracted by the clapping as the kids from before finish their song, when suddenly someone grabs her arm and she’s tugged up onstage, the glaring spotlight making her squint. 

“Wha-”

“Thank you Barry and Iris!” a voice calls, applause echoing in Alex’s ears as she holds her hand up to shade her eyes. “Next up we have another willing pair of volunteers…”

“Umm, Maggie,” a familiar voice says uncertainly. 

“Maggie!” the guy who’s really starting to get on Alex’s nerves yells jovially. “And what’s your name?”

Alex’s eyes have adjusted to the light. There’s a microphone shoved in her face and the pretty brunette Kara keeps nearly breaking is stood next to her, looking just as confused as Alex feels. 

“Umm.”

Someone hands them both microphones.

“Someday you guys might thank me for this,” the guy grins. Then he shrugs. “Or not.”

And then there’s music playing, the intro to a song Alex barely knows and the words are already flashing up on the screen set in front of the stage. Maggie’s silent at Alex’s side, her face an unpleasant shade of green and her eyes darting about the crowd frantically. She looks like she’s either about to hurl or run, and some voice at the back of Alex’s mind that sounds suspiciously like Kara yells at her not to let Maggie go. 

So she sings. The first few words are shaky, probably a little off but at her side Maggie turns to face her, her eyes wide and trusting and that’s what makes Alex _really_ get into it. Before she knows it she’s grinning, tapping her foot to the beat and when Winn cheers from the crowd she winks and throws in a shimmy, just for him. 

She nearly chokes when Maggie starts to sing through. She’s left standing open mouthed as her quiet, sweet voice picks up where Alex left off and _damn it_ she’s gorgeous, still stiff but grinning, her dimples popping out and it’s so cute Alex almost forgets to sing again when they launch into the chorus. 

But she does and that’s when the crowd goes nuts, cheering and whistling as their voices blend seamlessly in the air. Alex can just about see Kara and Winn at the back jumping up and down and yelling. She sends a full blown grin their way and maybe it’s the high of being in front of a crowd but Alex shrugs out of her shirt and tosses it into the crowd like she’s playing Madison Square Garden, proudly displaying her dad’s number on the back of her top. 

Kara whoops and Maggie stumbles over her words at the sight of Alex’s biceps but she’s back on track before anyone notices, voice building into the crescendo of the final verse. 

The last note hangs in the air like the last bright sparks of a firework, drifting slowly into silence for a beat, two. And then the room erupts, cheers ringing in Alex’s ears as she turns to grin excitedly at Maggie.

“That was amazing!” she yells over the noise of the crowd.

Maggie doesn’t get a chance to reply because Winn and Kara climb onto the stage and almost knock Alex to the floor. By the time Alex has disentangled herself from her overenthusiastic siblings Maggie’s disappeared, a new pair of kids being ushered onto the stage and Alex is shunted off back into the crowd. 

Alex frantically scans unfamiliar faces searching for Maggie, and finally she catches sight of a wave of brown hair disappearing out onto the balcony. Alex pushes through the crowd gathered round the stage, stepping on toes and ducking high fives until she can feel the sharp breeze coming through the open door on her face. 

Maggie’s alone, leaning on the railing at the far end of the balcony. There’s a soft smile on her face, the wind whipping her hair up and behind her. Alex fiddles with her snapback, tucking stray hair under the band. She straightens her shirt and ignores the goosebumps crawling up her arms from the cold. 

“Hey,” she calls. 

Maggie jumps and turns to face her, her smile growing when she sees who it is. “Hey.”

Alex sticks her hands in her pockets and wanders closer. “So… that was fun.”

Maggie laughs and Alex is barely able to control the way her heart jumps. “I wasn’t planning on drawing that much attention to myself.”

“Me neither.” 

Alex scratches the back of her neck. Maggie’s shorter than her and she has to look up to meet Alex’s eyes. Her gaze is more guarded than before, the thrill of being so open in front of so many people dying in the quiet outside of the party. 

“I never got your name.”

“Oh!” Alex digs her hand out of her pocket. “Alex Danvers.”

Maggie’s hand is warm. “Maggie.”

“Yeah, I- we’ve met.”

“I remember. That girl you’re with keeps trying to kill me.”

Alex blushes furiously and Maggie laughs. “Don’t worry, it happens.”

They’re quiet for a moment, gazing out into the night at the deep shadow of the mountain.

“So,” Alex starts. “You snowboard?”

Maggie nods. “I grew up near here, we’ve been coming since I was little. Do you? Or do you prefer making snow angels.”

“We haven’t been for a few years, actually,” Alex says quietly. “But my dad taught me to snowboard. It’s been nice coming back and getting into it again.”

Maggie doesn’t press and Alex is grateful. It’s been years since the plane crash but she doesn’t think her dad’s death will ever stop feeling fresh. Alex leans her forearms against the wide railing, shivering at the cold stone digging into her skin. 

Maggie’s warm hand is suddenly on her shoulder. “You know it’s the middle of the night in the middle of winter, right?”

“I _did_ have a shirt...”

Maggie chuckles. “Your adoring fans will have ripped it apart by now.”

“They’re your adoring fans too. Have you even heard yourself sing?”

Maggie looks away. “I don’t do it often.”

Alex moves a little closer, puts her hand on Maggie’s arm. “I’m glad you did tonight.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I would’ve looked so stupid up there trying to sing both parts on my own.”

Maggie laughs, loud enough to echo off the mountain and Alex can’t help the grin spreading on her own face at the sound. A sudden gust of wind makes her shiver violently, and before she knows it Maggie’s wrapping her in a warm hug. Alex only waits a moment before hugging her back, leaning her cheek on the top of Maggie’s head. 

“Damn you’re short.”

“Don’t push your luck, Danvers.”

They’re loathe to pull away from each other, a little bubble of warmth in the dark night but eventually Maggie pulls back. 

“We should go back inside,” she says, quietly.

Alex nods. Maggie’s fingers brush hers as they walk side by side back to the party. To their surprise Kara is waiting right inside holding Alex’s shirt. She shoves it into her sister’s arms and goes to stand next to Winn, who waves and winks at Alex. 

Alex tugs the shirt back on, flustered. “Were you watching us?”

“We didn’t want to spoil the moment,” Kara stage-whispers.

Kara holds her hand out to Maggie but there’s an odd, distant look on Maggie’s face that makes Kara falter. She looks between Alex and Maggie, confused. 

Alex nudges Maggie, bringing her back to the present. “Maggie, this is my sister Kara and our friend Winn. Well, he’s more like my little brother.”

Maggie fixes a smile to her face and says hello to Winn and Kara. “It’s nice to properly meet you both.”

Winn snorts. “Yeah, and Kara hasn’t knocked you over _once_ tonight.”

Maggie’s stiff smile melts into something more real. 

“You and Alex were so good up there!” Winn carries on, gesturing behind him at the karaoke stage where a girl with a necklace shaped like a panther and her blonde friend are belting out Year 3000. 

“Thanks,” Maggie says brightly. 

Alex nudges her and they both grin. Up on stage the guy who dragged Alex and Maggie up to sing ushers the other kids back to the dance floor. 

“Thank you Amaya and Sara! Now we’re putting karaoke on hold, everyone grab your friends and get on the dance floor we’re going to play some amazing songs before we ring in the new year!”

Winn holds his hand out politely to Maggie and she laughs and takes it, letting him lead her out onto the dance floor. Kara squeezes close to Alex’s elbow. 

“She’s nice.”

Alex grunts noncommittally. Kara rolls her eyes and grabs Alex by the hand. 

“At least _come out_ onto the dance floor.”

Alex lets herself get dragged into the middle of a crowd of kids dancing to the third song that evening Kara’s called her favourite. She’s soon lost in the music, moving out of the action when Kara and Winn start getting overwhelmed, diving back in when they’ve recovered. More than once she feels Maggie’s small hand in hers and she’s there, eyes shining and her dimples as deep as Alex has ever seen them. By the time the clock hits five to midnight Alex’s face hurts from smiling, her voice is raw from singing and Maggie hasn’t let go of her hand for half an hour. 

They trip outside, giggling and warm from too much dancing. They’re alone on the balcony, the sounds of the party fading until they’re faint and distant. The cold air nips at their cheeks causing them to huddle close together. With Maggie’s arms around her waist and her cheek resting on Alex’s shoulder, Alex points out into the star-studded darkness. 

“Ursa Major. Five minutes and that’s where the fireworks will be.”

“Three, now,” Maggie whispers, her breath fogging in the warm light spilling from the open doorway. 

They’re closer than they’ve been all night. Maggie’s practically standing on Alex’s toes. She reaches up, wraps her arms around Alex’s neck. Alex’s come to rest at the small of Maggie’s back. Maggie’s hair spills softly over her shoulders, framing her face. Her eyes are dark, searching and she gazes into Alex’s as if she’ll find what she’s looking for there. 

“Maggie…” Alex whispers. 

Inside someone starts up a count. Alex barely listens, instead of counting down she’s counting the reflection of the stars in Maggie’s eyes. Maggie takes a deep breath, the ends of her hair tickling Alex’s hands. 

“Three… two… one!”

She’s not sure who moves first, all Alex knows is that Maggie’s lips are on hers, a breath, a whisper of a kiss drowned out by the roar of fireworks and the cheering of people ready to face the new year head on. 

“Happy New Year,” Maggie murmurs, her eyes still closed. 

“Happy New Year…”

She says it to empty air because suddenly Maggie’s gone. All Alex can taste is firework smoke and the cold midnight air. She looks around frantically, catching sight of Maggie running back into the party, shoving her way through people celebrating, growing groups of parents come to cheer on 2017 with their kids. Maggie rushes past Eliza, Kara and Winn, the three of them holding hands and singing Auld Lang Syne. 

At the top of the stairs a haughty couple stand silently glaring at the festivities, wearing a pair of ugly matching frowns. They reach out, already starting to speak when Maggie sprints up the stairs but she dodges them and careers on past them and out of the room. 

Alex stands frozen in the doorway, watching the empty space where she last saw Maggie. She can feel Eliza’s arms wrap round her from behind, feel Kara and Winn each taking a hand and yelling Happy New Year, and the fading ghost of Maggie’s lips on her own.


	2. Rules of the Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sticking to the status quo  
> Can't tell them I'm gay oh no  
> But Maggie is cute  
> And i don't like dudes  
> But basketball bitch no homo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome to chapter two of rex and I's love child. they're doing so well and we are so proud of them. so this chapter is where Getcha head in the Game would take place, and it sort of does but after much consideration we just couldn't write anything realistically that made this sound like a musical. so where they would just randomly break out into song, that won't happen in this fic, but they do sing for the musical etc. 
> 
> also fyi Lena is irish in this cause Katie we love you but you cannot america accent at all. Also Jack is British because fuck you and we want to be able to use insults such as chicken nugget so that's why

Ever since New Years, Kara has taken a liking to flinging herself onto Alex’s bed to wake her up. 

“First day of school!” Kara crows in her ear, jiggling the bed hard enough that Alex worries it might break. She lies atop of Alex until she’s fighting to get out from under her, immediately disappearing into the bathroom when Kara lets her go.

“Eliza is making pancakes for breakfast.” Kara informs her through the door. Alex scoffs. Of course she’s making Kara’s favourite. She’ll probably make it every day this week. 

“I’ll be down in a minute.” 

Alex listens to Kara traipse off, waiting for her footsteps to reach the stairs before she slumps onto the edge of the bath, lazily pulling her sleep shirt over her head. The shower takes far too long to warm up, and Alex sits there shivering in only her shorts as she waits, inspecting her hair to decide whether she needs to wash it today. 

Spending far too long in the shower, and washing her hair thoroughly to procrastinate getting out, she ends up downstairs just before Kara polishes off the last of the pancakes. Managing to snake the last two out from under her nose, she ruffles Winn’s new shortened hair on her way past to grab a banana. 

“Your uniform is clean and in your gym bag.” Eliza skips a greeting altogether, instead moving straight to the more important subjects apparently. “I put your new textbooks in your backpack. Don’t forget that you need to wait for Kara to finish Art Club so you can walk home together.”

“Good morning, Mom. How did you sleep?” Alex grumbles sarcastically, too quiet for Eliza to hear. 

“Winn, you going to come over after school sweetie?” Eliza asks, almost pointlessly. She receives an affirmative nod.

“Wait for Winn, too. AV Club finishes the same time as Art.” 

“Got it.” Alex says, louder this time. Eliza smiles at her, that weird smile that Alex can’t ever quite get a read on. Like she’s proud of Alex and disappointed in her all at the same time. She never knows how to feel. 

“So, J’onn told me that there are going to be Stanford representatives at the big game in two weeks.” 

Alex blanches, her stomach rolling violently at the thought. Her top pick of college were going to have people at her game, watching her play, assessing her abilities. She’s not even a senior yet, but her entire college education could ride on her Junior year final. 

Stanford is an expensive school. Too expensive for the Danvers’ to pay for, especially after Jeremiah had died. If Alex wanted to set foot anywhere near such a prestigious college, she would need to earn herself a full ride. Whether that be through her grades, or basketball, she isn’t quite sure yet. She just knows that she can’t screw it up. If not for herself, to make her mother proud of her. 

And maybe she would finally step out from under Kara’s shadow. Just for a moment.

“Oh yeah?” Alex replies mundanely. It’s too early in the morning, and too early in the school year to be thinking about this. Alex wants to avoid the thought for as long as humanly possible. Right up until the buzzer rings for the start of the game even. 

Eliza hums. “This is big, Alex. It could be your whole future on a platter. You have to make sure you focus on playing well, but you have to keep your grades up too.” 

And look after Kara, and make sure no one is picking on Winn, and pretend that she isn’t aching to come out to the rest of the school already so that she doesn’t have to hide anymore. Should be easy enough, that’s how her mother makes it sound at least. Just be the perfect daughter, sister, basketball player and overall human. Sure.

Alex is spared any more pressure from her mother when Kara comes barrelling back down from her own shower, ready to start their walk to school. Eliza kisses them all on the forehead and waves them off, Kara in front, Winn being dragged behind her and Alex in the back. 

The walk to National City East High isn’t long, and fortunately they don’t have to venture very close to the central business district, where men and women in suits and high end dresses bustle around with their heads down, cursing the kids for getting in their way. The weather is brisk, cold enough that Alex had to throw a denim jacket over her plain white V neck as she left the house. 

Kara has already arrived at school and hugged her way through half of the basketball team by the time Alex catches up with her and starts getting high fives and fist bumps of her own. Charlie, the team’s best small forward, passes her a basketball after she greets them, and claps Alex on the back jovially.

“Happy New Year, Captain.” They grin.

James appears behind her, grabbing both of her shoulders and jostling her gently.

“It’s a Happy Wildcat New Year!” He cheers, rousing the entire team to join him. “Cause in two weeks, you Alex Danvers, are going to take us to the championships.”

“And to infinity and beyond!” Kara joins in, high-fiving James. “Just like Buzz Aldrin.”

Alex laughs. “Actually, that would be Buzz _Lightyear.”_

Kara snaps her fingers. “Dang it.”

“Well, I might be the captain…” Alex starts, glancing around at her teammates fondly. “But we’re all part of the team. We’re going to get there together.”

“Hell yeah, we are!” Jake, one of the point guards, calls out. “What team?”

“Wildcats!” Everyone responds, cheering raucously as they make their way into the main building. Everyone falls into step behind Alex, with Kara at her right. It’s almost unnerving, having the people that would be considered the school’s elite walking around behind her. It should make her feel more confident, but instead she just feels stared at. 

They are barely five steps in the doorway when the people around them begin to part, making way for someone that Alex can’t see yet. The students chatter quietly, pointing in awe and maybe a little fear. A moment later, she comes into view.

Lucy Lane struts down the hallway like she owns it, her best friend and partner in crime Jack Spheer following closely behind. It’s almost comical, how five foot two Lucy Lane commands the attention and respect of the entire school while Jack, who is a whopping five foot eleven, walks behind her with such casual ease. 

Alex and Kara both take instinctual steps to the side as Lucy brushes between them, shooting Alex a grin as she goes. 

“Wow.” Alex mutters, almost involuntarily. Kara nods her agreement, both of them watching for as long as Lucy is in sight. “Queen Lane has returned to her throne” 

Alex hears a scoff off to her left, and turns to find none other than Lena Luthor standing to the side of the hallway. She has a hand over her mouth, like the scoff was accidental, and she’s pointedly avoiding looking at any of the basketball players.

Lena doesn’t like the basketball team. It’s common knowledge among their year, and Kara had made it her personal mission to try and befriend her. To convince her that the team wasn’t all that bad. They were the same age, Kara and Lena, but Lena had skipped a grade and is now studying in junior year with Alex and James. 

“Hey, Lena!” Kara greets cheerfully, making to walk over and strike up a conversation. But Lena starts to scurry off before she can even take a step. She mumbles something that sounds like ‘hello’ over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner of the hallway, making a beeline for her homeroom. Kara frowns after her, pouting.

“Better luck next time.” Alex jokes, pulling Kara along towards homeroom. It’s common practice for Kara to hang around in Alex’s class until the bell rings. Most of her friends are in junior year, not that she doesn’t have friends in her own year. Kara is practically friends with the entire school.

But a leftover habit from her first year on earth, when she was first adjusting to Earth and it’s social norms meant that Kara spent as much time as possible with Alex. So the practice formed that Kara would wait with Alex in her homeroom until the bell rang, and she’d race over to her own to get marked off. When Kara had befriended Winn in her own homeroom class, he had joined in on the habit.

Lena has taken up a desk as far into the corner as she can get, nose already buried in a book by the time the four of them arrive. Kara frowns at her wistfully but shakes her head once, deeming it fruitless to try again so soon. 

Alex slumps into her regular seat, with James in front of her. Charlie is the only other basketball player in their homeroom, and they sit behind Alex. 

As students file in slowly, the desks begin to fill up. Several people walk past to say hello to Kara, and by proxy Alex as well. She smiles at all of them kindly, but mostly keeps her head down. 

By all social rules, Alex is technically one of the popular kids at East High. With good grades, a stellar basketball career and a sister like Kara Danvers, everybody knew who she was. Most people liked her as well. But with popularity in friends, also came popularity with boys. 

Alex got asked out a lot, and only ever by boys. She can’t blame anyone but herself for that, having decided for a myriad of reasons that staying inside the closet is a good idea. Of course it sucks, and Alex feels bad that she could be inadvertently leading people on. 

One of the people she _isn’t_ sorry about leading on is the douchebag that sits across from her. He has a weird, long Swedish name. Or was if Finnish? Alex can’t remember. But everyone calls him Mxy for short. He swaggers into the room, wearing what Alex assumes is supposed to look sophisticated. He looks more like a five year old that got into his dad’s closet wearing a navy blue jacket and pants set over a dark purple shirt.

He drops into his seat, propping an ankle up onto the opposite knee and leaning on the back of the chair with his elbow. 

“Alex Danvers.”

Alex can’t stop her eye roll. 

“Mxy.” 

“How was your New Year’s, kiss anyone special?” He asks, sly grin firmly in place. 

“As a matter of fact, I did.” She responds with an equally smarmy smile. His expression doesn’t falter how she wanted it to, however. He leans forward, balancing his elbows on his knees.

“Well I can assure you, darling, that whoever it was… I’m a thousand times better.”

Alex scoffs. “Oh I highly doubt that.”

Kara taps her on the shoulder, trying to pull her attention to point out somebody who just walked into the room, but Alex doesn’t want to back down now. She brushes Kara off, eyes focused solely on Mxy’s smug face. 

“Well how would you know, dear Alex. You’ve never let Mxy try.” 

“Oh, I don’t need to let you try. I already know how disappointing it is from every other girl in our year.”

“Alex.” Kara mutters again, hand on her shoulder, still trying to get her attention. Alex waves her off again.

“Ouch, darling.” Mxy winces, hand on his chest. He tilts his head to the side, smile still _infuriatingly_ in place. “I’m hurt.”

“Just leave her alone, Mxy.” Winn interrupts, eyeing Mxy with barely contained disdain. Mxy turns to glare at Winn, raking his eyes up and down in disgust.

“You won’t agree to go out with me, but you hang out with this girl pretending to be a boy.” 

Alex is out of her chair before he even finishes his sentence, one fist closing around his collar and the other pulling back to let fly. Everyone else freezes, eyes on the commotion in the centre of the room. 

“What the fuck did you just say?”

Mxy’s smile has disappeared, replaced with a look of sheer terror as Alex remains poised to punch him right in the face. His eyes flick nervously between her expression of murderous rage and her curled fist held aloft. 

“I s-said-” Mxy gulps. “Why would you hang out with little Winnie when-”

Alex almost wants to admire his gumption. The fact that he would continue to insult Winn with Alex in his face. But she doesn’t have time to even consider the idea before her fist connects with Mxy’s jaw. It lands with a satisfying thud, almost sending Mxy sprawling onto the floor. He regains his balance quickly, however, and stands.

He has an inch or two on Alex, but he doesn’t have nearly the same commanding presence. He wilts under her gaze slightly but doesn’t back down, shoving her roughly.

He roars at her, outraged about how she had the audacity to punch him in his ‘beautiful face’ and shoves her again. It sends Alex stumbling until she hits a desk and falls backwards onto it. Groaning, it takes her a few seconds to get her bearings back before she can properly focus on the student looking down at her. Long dark hair and brown eyes that are all too familiar.

“M-Maggie?” She grunts.

“Danvers.” Maggie greets, eyeing her worriedly. “You okay?”

What the hell is she doing here? Sitting at a desk in Alex’s homeroom, a veritable 1500 miles from Nebraska. Alex can’t even begin to puzzle the answer, still distracted by the way Maggie is frowning down at her, concerned. 

“Yeah I-” Alex cuts herself when she realises Mxy is stalking towards her again. She stands up, getting right back in his face as he raises his arms to shove her again. She pulls her arm back, ready to throw another punch right at the face he loves so much. 

Kara appears in between them, a hand on either of their chests to try and force them apart. She’s not using any force however, as Alex has no problem pushing back against her hand. Winn is standing a step behind her, calling Alex’s name to try and make her back down.

Alex ignores them, gearing up to throw her punch when a voice rings out from the doorway.

“That is _enough.”_

The entire room falls silent under Ms Grant’s glare. Lucy and Jack are standing behind her, watching the commotion with wide eyes. The entire class freezes, and Ms Grant takes the opportunity to walk up onto the small makeshift stage at the front of the room. She puts down her cup of coffee and clipboard onto her desk then turns to face the class. 

“All of you.” She starts. “Sit. Down.”

The students scramble to their seats, slumping into them and keeping their heads low, trying to fly under Ms Grant’s radar. Kara makes for the door, trying to slip out amongst the commotion, Winn following closely behind.

“Ms Danvers, Mr Schott.” She calls. “Do not go anywhere.”

Winn jolts with shock when Ms Grant refers to him correctly, and freezes in place. Kara nods, looking thoroughly chastised, and stands by Winn while Ms Grant addresses her class first.

“Ms Danvers,” Ms Grant starts again, clearly addressing Alex now. “I will see you in detention this afternoon. We have an absolute zero tolerance policy for fighting at East High.”

“But Ms Grant-” Alex says.

“Ms Danvers, it would do you well not to speak out of turn.” 

Alex wilts, sliding down in her chair and feigning interest in her basketball. Ms Grant watches her for a few more moments, then turns to pick up the clipboard on her desk.

“Ms Grant, that’s not fair.”

“Hey, Alex was just-”

Kara and Maggie speak up at the same time. 

Everyone’s eyes flick between the two of them and Ms Grant, waiting for someone to break the tension. Alex looks up at Maggie in disbelief. She wilts slightly, under the attention of the class, but she pressed on all the same.

“Alex was protecting-”

“All due respect-” Ms Grant glances down at the clipboard. “Ms Sawyer, but I know exactly what she was doing.”

“Mxy was the one-”

“Ms Danvers.” Ms Grant cuts Kara off with a glare. “I will be seeing you, and Ms Sawyer, in detention as well.”

The classroom falls silent, Ms Grant glaring to see if anyone else might dare interrupt her. Alex glances back up in time to see Lucy twitch at Ms Grant’s side. She looks furious, and Alex isn’t even sure if she heard what happened, but she feels a little better to know that Ms Grant’s minion might be on her side.

“Mr Mxyzptlk.” Ms Grant finally calls, and the douche bag looks up, trying not to look guilty under her intense gaze.

“Pack your things, and go to Ms Marsdin’s office.”

“But-”

“But nothing, young man. I will not tolerate hatefulness and disrespect in my classroom. Take your things and get. Out.”

Mxy scrambles for his backpack, weaving his way through the desks with his head hung low. He makes the mistake of trying to shoulder check Kara on his way past, and Alex grins when he stumbles like he’s hit a brick wall. Wincing, he turns to glare at Kara, but he doesn’t say anything. Alex’s grin widens, maybe he learnt something. 

When Alex turns back, she’s sure she catches Ms Grant smirking. But it’s gone before she can get a good look. She shoos Kara and Winn out of the room, sending them off to class just as the bell rings 

“Now that _that_ is out of the way.” Ms Grant sighs, eyes shut and rolling her shoulders. She settles back into the cool, detached demeanor that gives her her notoriety amongst the students. Her eyes open again, and her gaze sweeps the room slowly.

“Welcome back, everyone. I trust you all had a great New Year’s, but it is time to focus up and dive back into your studies. There are sign up sheets in the lobby for all of the school’s clubs. There is also a sign up sheet for those of you who wish to audition for the winter musicale.”

Ms Grant’s face lights up with glee at the mention of the musical. Most of the class groans quietly, sinking further into their seats as she goes on a tirade about singles and couples auditions for the show. Alex grins, the positions had been picked for the musical and Winn had been selected as composer. He’d been raving about it all break, and Alex- no matter how disinterested she might be in the musical- is extremely proud of him. 

“Does anyone have any other questions.”

The class remains silent, and Alex prays that everyone just keeps their mouth shut. Ms Grant was well known to go on tirades, and Alex really wants to get out of homeroom so she can speak to Maggie. 

A hand raises at the back of the class and Alex groans internally, because of course the little shit of the class has something to say.

“Yes, Vasquez?”

Vasquez grins cheekily. “So how were your holidays, Ms Grant?”

The class groans and Ms Grant rolls her eyes, trying to hide the beginnings of a smirk as she begins to take roll. She lets the class talk amongst themselves until the bell rings for first period. Alex immediately turns around to look at Maggie. Talking to the person next to her, she’s every bit as beautiful as she was on New Year’s. Her hair is pulled back in a low pony, and instead of a flannel she’s wearing a grey button up that’s tucked into her jeans.

James pokes Alex in the shoulder to get her attention. She drags her eyes away from Maggie and finds him looking at her weirdly.

“Do you know her?” He asks, glancing over his shoulder at Maggie. Alex fights not to look back at her, keeping her eyes on James lest he notice what she is sure are giant heart eyes. This stupid little crush is going to get her outed, and it’s the last thing she wants.

“We met at New Year’s, she was staying at the ski resort as well.” Alex replies with what she hopes is nonchalance. She makes the mistake of glancing back at Maggie, and this time Maggie is looking back at her. She shoots Alex a soft smile, cheeks dimpling, and Alex suddenly feels like someone is squeezing her heart. She smiles back, and blushes, certain it actually comes off more like a grimace. 

Alex turns back to face the front, intent on keeping her gaze firmly on the wall until the bell rings, incase she’s caught looking at Maggie again. James tries to get her attention a few more times, but when the bell rings a few moments later, Alex is up out of her chair like a shot, disappearing into the hallway.

* * *

Lucy waits until the most of her classmates have left, filtering into the hallways to make their way to first period. She grabs Jack’s hand to keep him in place. Glancing over her shoulder, she makes sure Ms Grant is out of earshot before speaking. She really doesn’t want to end up in detention as well, and Ms Grant can be ruthless at the best of times.

“You heard what that fuckwit Mxy said, right?” Lucy asks in a low whisper. Jack glances over her shoulder at Ms Grant as well, leaning in to keep his volume down.

“Yeah, he misgendered Winn even after Alex pretty much threatened anyone even _thinking_ about it.” Jack shakes his head. “Rookie move.”

Lucy nods, letting herself sigh wistfully over Alex Danvers before shaking herself out of the thought. Now is not the time to be distracted by the hot basketball captain. 

“Well, I overheard the douche bag saying that he wants to audition for the musical. I thought what a fan-fucking-tastic opportunity to get him back for being an absolute fuck trumpet.” 

“Good, the twat deserves a good bollocking-” Jack starts, but then snaps to attention, glancing warily over Lucy’s shoulder with a grimace on his face. Lucy sighs, knowing that she’s just been caught. She steels herself, taking a deep breath, before turning to face Ms Grant with the widest, most fake smile she can conjure up on short notice. 

“Ms Grant I-”

“Save it. I’ll see you both in detention with the other misfits.” She glares at them sternly. “No swearing, no matter how much they deserve it.”

The fact that Ms Grant went to the trouble of implying the Mxy deserved everything he got took away the sting of receiving a detention from her favourite teacher. Lucy did her best to hide her smirk as Ms Grant walked away, and she turned to smile at Jack. 

“So, here’s the plan. We-”

“Ms Grant literally just caught you and gave you detention, Luce…” Jack trails off uneasily, taking Lucy’s elbow and guiding her towards the door. Lucy shrugs, turning to walk backwards so that she can wiggle her eyebrows at him.

“Yes, but she didn’t say anything about our intention to get revenge even after overhearing it.” 

Jack tilts his head to the side, brow furrowed for a moment before he breaks out into a smile.

“I get the feeling we’d be doing it even if we did get caught.”

“You’re exactly right, Mr Spheer.” Lucy grins.

“Then let’s hear it, Ms Lane.”

* * *

Alex is leaning against the wall when Maggie leaves homeroom, scuffing her heel on the floor. She smiles at Maggie and beckons her over with a tilt of her head. Maggie gives Alex a small smile, because she’s not to blame for the bottom dropping out of Maggie’s world, she couldn’t have known. 

“You stalking me, Sawyer?”

“I wish.” Maggie stares at the floor. “Small world, huh?”

“What are you doing here?” Alex asks. “You’re a long way from Nebraska.”

Maggie shrugs. “Felt like a change of pace.”

“In the middle of the school year, a thousand miles from home?” 

“Do you always give new students the third degree?” Maggie bites. “Is that like an East High tradition?”

There’s suddenly no sign of the sweet girl from New Year’s in her eyes and Alex steps back in shock, hands half raised. 

Maggie’s face immediately softens, regret flitting across her features. “Alex, I’m sorry. I just… I’m new and this is all so overwhelming and I didn’t think I’d ever see you again let alone be in the same school and I- I…”

Alex’s stomach churns uncomfortably. She shakes her head. “No, Maggie it’s my fault I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed.” She takes a deep breath. “Start over?”

Maggie hesitates, then nods.

Alex relaxes, waves and grins. “Hi, I’m Alex Danvers, welcome to National City East High.”

The edges of Maggie’s mouth twitch. “Hi Alex, I’m Maggie Sawyer. Can you help me find my next class?”

“Of course!” Alex says brightly. “What do you have?”

Maggie’s tucked the printout Ms Grant gave her into her planner, over the timetable page already neatly filled out for what Alex assumes were her classes from her old school. She runs her finger down her new timetable. “Double science.”

“Ouch, with Dr Stein?”

“No, I’ve got Ms M’orzz.”

Alex grins. “She’s great. Super nice, she’ll make you feel really welcome.”

Maggie just nods, and her face slips back into a frown. She’s so preoccupied with putting her planner back into her bag she doesn’t notice the group of guys heading their way until she stands up and smacks straight into one. 

Alex catches her easily, one arm around her shoulders and one around her waist and for just a moment they’re back on the balcony at Jarvis Bay, lost in each other’s eyes. Then one of the boys whistles, and she knows he’s just appreciative of her quick catch but Alex freaks, nearly drops Maggie. 

Maggie stumbles away, almost frantically brushing herself down and putting a safe distance between herself and Alex. Alex who’s awkwardly high-fiving the guy who accidentally tripped Maggie, barely managing to mask the terror in her eyes. 

“Nice one Danvers! You catch like that at the big game we’ll beat West High for sure!”

The guys head off leaving Alex and Maggie alone. Alex can’t meet Maggie’s gaze, already kicking herself for basically dipping the prettiest girl in school, and _then_ staring into her eyes like they were in a goddamn movie. She gestures down the corridor after the group of guys. 

“Ms M’orzz’s room is this way.”

Maggie just nods and follows after Alex, her heart pounding and the feeling of Alex’s arms around her still pressing into her skin. Alex walks quickly, barely giving Maggie time to think about how weird Alex is acting, wondering how she can go so fast from taking none of Mxy’s transphobic shit to freaking out around touching a girl in front of a bunch of highschool boys. 

They pause outside a classroom and Maggie is about to go in when Alex nods at the wall. There’s a big, brightly coloured display plastered with sign up sheets for after school clubs. The winter musical sheet is the biggest, on bright pink A3 and written in a fancy, curly font Maggie can barely read. More than half of the slots are already filled.

Maggie’s so preoccupied checking out all the clubs she doesn’t notice the sudden quiet falling around her, the shuffle of feet stepping back until she feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and a looming presence behind her. 

The girl waiting with her arms folded, tapping her foot is barely five two, and yet somehow she’s managed to command the attention of the entire corridor. She smiles at Alex, and it’s oddly gentle despite the stony look in her eyes. 

“Hey, captain. How was your new year?”

Alex’s face makes the journey from National City to Nebraska and back in under a second. Her jaw twitches. 

Lucy raises an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?” She changes tack “Who’s your new friend?”

“Maggie,” Maggie says, folding her own arms and trying to use the scant inch she has over the girl without much luck. 

“Lucy,” the girl replies, finally looking at Maggie. “Lucy Lane.”

“I’m Jack,” the giant who’d somehow managed to escape Maggie’s notice pipes up. He smiles softly at Maggie. The fluffy pillow to Lucy’s iron fist, Maggie guesses. 

Lucy coughs politely to draw Maggie’s attention back to her. “Are you going to sign up?” 

Maggie shrugs. “I might do karate.”

Lucy rolls her eyes. “I meant the musical.”

“Oh, uh, probably not, it’s not really my-”

Lucy cuts her off, pushing past her to sign her name across three spaces, and Jack’s just underneath.

“Jack and I are auditioning for the leads,” she announces, as if just saying it means they’ll get the part. She turns her attention to Alex, that smile back again and Maggie has to work hard to push down the odd, roiling feeling in her gut at the sweet, uncertain way Alex smiles back. “How about you, Alex?”

Alex laughs. ”As if, Lane.”

Lucy pouts. She looks gorgeous, of course. “You’ll come and see the auditions though, right? We’ve got something really special planned.”

Alex smirks. “Oh yeah, who are you gonna heckle off the stage this year?”

That makes Lucy laugh. Maggie grimaces, but she’s quick to arrange her features into something more neutral when Lucy whirls dramatically on her heel back to her. 

“Well, Maggie, it was nice to meet you.” She turns and chucks Alex under the chin, winking. “Nice to see you too, captain. Toodles!”

And with that she flounces off down the corridor, Jack shaking his head and laughing under his breath before following after her.

* * *

Kara pretends to stretch like their rest of the team, putting way too much effort into making it seem realistic. Alex glares at her dryly and rolls her eyes when Kara just grins back at her cheekily. 

They’re standing off to the side of the court, watching the team warm up and loosen their joints. Alex twirls a basketball in her hand loosely, trying hard not to get stuck in her own head. She hasn’t stopped thinking about the musical since this morning, when Lucy had asked whether Maggie would be signing up, and Maggie had said it wasn’t really her thing. It had certainly sounded like her kind of thing at New Year’s. 

“Hey, is it true you get extra credit just for auditioning for the musical?” Alex asks distractedly. 

Kara pauses her stretch. “Uh, I’m not sure. Thinking of auditioning?”

Alex shrugs. Humming noncommittally she avoids Kara’s eyes. “Any extra credit I can get, right?”

Kara straightens up, taking a step in front of Alex to force her gaze up. She grabs Alex’s face between both of her hands and shakes her head back and forth slightly.

“I know Eliza is putting the pressure on, but don’t do something you don’t want to do.”

Alex shrugs again, still doing her best to avoid looking Kara in the eye. 

“What if I do want to?” Alex asks, and if Kara were human she wouldn’t have heard the mumble. But Kara is an alien, so she perks up and smiles dazzlingly at Alex.

“Then you should! You have a beautiful voice, Alex.” 

Nodding, Alex smiles gently. Kara has always been Alex’s support, her shoulder to lean on ever since she landed a few years ago. Alex doesn’t know where she would be without her ragtag alien kid sister. She reaches out to ruffle Kara’s hair messily, earning a squawk of outrage.

“Plus, Lucy’s kinda cute, right?”

Something about her offhand comment makes Kara jolt and look at her strangely. But a moment later, Kara emphatically nods in agreement. It’s Alex’s turn to look at her strangely. Alex was definitely joking.

Maybe.

“Alright, Wildcats.” Alex claps her hands together, gathering everyone’s attention. “Pair up.”

Alex sets the team up running drills, passing and dribbling in pairs across half of the court. She pairs off with James, switching between joining in on the drills and keeping an eye on the team, making sure that everyone is practicing in proper form. 

It doesn’t take long for her mind to wander. Practice fades to background noise, and she passes and shoots the ball out of sheer muscle memory. On some level she can hear the rest of her team, but her mind is replaying a song. That song, from New Year’s. She starts humming it under her breath without noticing she’s doing it. 

She thinks about Maggie. About how she had snapped at her this morning when Alex had pushed too far, asked too many questions. Maggie had completely closed herself off the moment Alex got too personal. 

Maggie had run off so quickly after their kiss on New Year’s, and now it felt like it almost hadn’t even happened. She had been so tense and skittish, and it had made Alex feel awkward. The whole interaction had thrown Alex way off.

She thought Maggie might have really cared about her. Now she isn’t even sure Maggie liked her. 

Alex gets so distracted she doesn’t notice the ball flying at her head. 

“Alex!” Kara calls, getting Alex’s attention just in time. She ducks, letting the ball sail over her head and smack into the wall of the gym. Charlie is already at her side, apologising profusely.

“Sorry, captain. I thought you heard me call, I didn’t mean to-“ They ramble.

“No, no. Charlie, you’re good.” Alex waves them off, shaking her head. “My fault.”

James gathers the attention of the team, setting them back to work on a new drill before glancing back at Alex worriedly. She shrugs him off, waving him to look after the team while she shakes herself out, trying to refocus.

“Hey, sis.” Kara appears beside her, hand on her shoulder and brow furrowed. Alex shoots what she thinks is supposed to be a smile, but probably comes off much more like a grimace. 

“I’m fine.”

Kara shoots her a withering look. “Where’s your head?”

“In the game.” Alex answers much too quickly. Kara rolls her eyes gently, sliding her hand along Alex’s back to wrap her arm all the way around her shoulders. She pulls her in, hugging her tight. Alex doesn’t particularly need the tight hold to feel grounded, but Kara had picked it up from Alex doing it for her, and she never complains. 

“You know…” Kara starts, looking at Alex in a way that makes her feel like her soul is laid bare. Like she knows exactly where Alex’s head had actually been. “You’re always so sharp and focused, no one is going to bite your head off for missing one play.”

“I can’t miss _anything,_ Kara. I’m being watched, my entire future rides on this game.” Alex stresses.

“Okay, okay.” Kara placates. “But this isn’t the game. It’s just practice. Coach isn’t even here, you’re okay.”

Alex shakes her head, pulling out of Kara’s grasp and waving for James to pass her a ball. She catches it smoothly, dribbling it as she backs away from Kara. 

“I _am_ fine, Kara. Let’s just practice, yeah?” Alex says. She turns back to the team, who all look away, trying to look like they hadn’t been watching the Sisters interact. Alex decides the use it to her advantage.

“We have a game to practice for, don’t we?” She addresses all of them. She gets various nods and grunts of assent, and she can’t help but roll her yes.

“C’mon, what team?”

“Wildcats!” Comes the enthusiastic reply. Kara sighs heavily, nodding as she jogs back towards the team. Alex smiles, relieved that she seems to be dropping it for the time being, and getting back to practice. Passing the ball back to James, she calls for a short game of half court, and she pushes all thoughts of Maggie to the back of her mind. She doesn’t have time to think about girls, or coming out. 

Alex has a game to win.


	3. Crime and Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang serves detention, Lucy finds out, and literally everyone is queer (like why is Alex even in the closet).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternative Titles that we considered:  
> 221B Gay Street  
> Inspector Lane: Bi-Curious  
> Detective Lane and the Case of the Exploding Vasquez  
> Ikea loves Alex cause she's all about that closet (bout that closet, no treble)  
> Lane and Spheer Investigations™
> 
> we're back with chapter three. i swear we're going to write this whole thing, and we're sorry we disappeared for a while. but we're here, queer and all about that making literally every single character some form of queer just try and stop us.

Maggie takes a free seat near the front of the class. The teacher, Ms M’orzz, smiles at her and makes her way over. 

“Hi, Maggie Sawyer, right? I’m Ms M’orzz.” 

She leans on the edge of Maggie’s desk, not close enough to get in her space but enough Maggie feels like their conversation is just between the two of them, not the rest of the class filing in through the open door. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you get up and introduce yourself. Your old school sent your records over so I know you’re pretty much caught up on the curriculum, but if you’re confused by anything at all, don’t be afraid to ask, okay?” The bell rings, and Ms M’orzz starts to head back to the front of the class. She throws a final smile at Maggie over her shoulder. “And welcome to East High!”

Maggie ignores the person who drops into the seat next to her, opening up her notebook instead and concentrating on the formulae Ms M’orzz is writing up on the whiteboard. It’s complex stuff for their grade, but not exactly difficult for Maggie, so it’s easy for her to spot where Ms M’orzz makes a mistake in one step that carries over to the next and makes her answer wrong. 

Maggie sticks up her hand. 

“Yes, Maggie?”

“That should be a three, not an eight. Otherwise you can’t balance the next equation.”

Ms M’orzz peers at the board. She nods at Maggie, quickly changes the errant three. “Thank you, Maggie. I wouldn’t have caught that.” She catches sight of Maggie’s notebook and the equation she’s already completed before Ms M’orzz has. “Impressive work.”  
Maggie just shrugs and goes back to her notes.

“Clever, beautiful _and_ modest?” a voice Maggie recognises purrs. “I should have paid more attention to you.”

“Hello, Lucy.”

“Where did you learn that, hmm?” Lucy’s leaning close to Maggie, her voice low so Ms M’orzz doesn’t hear them. 

“How to tell an eight from a three? Kindergarten.”

Lucy scoffs. “I mean what are you, a child genius?”

Maggie rolls her eyes. “I just know how to count.”

Lucy leans back in her seat, seems to drop it for a moment. Maggie starts copying the next set of equations, solving them as she goes. Her pen skids across the page when Lucy suddenly leans back into her space. 

“So how do you know Alex? You two seem close.”

Maggie stomach rolls unpleasantly. “Who?”

“Alex Danvers? Basketball team captain?”

“Oh her.” Maggie fakes disinterest, her eyes glued firmly to her page. “We have homeroom together.”

Lucy huffs, unsatisfied. Maggie jumps again when someone dumps their books down on the table next to her and slips into the empty seat. 

“Give it a rest, Lane,” a girl Maggie vaguely recognises from homeroom says. 

The girl holds out her hand. “I’m Lena Luthor.” 

“Maggie. Sawyer.” 

Lena peers owlishly at Maggie’s notes, comparing them to her own which are scrawled untidily. She’d copied down the same wrong number as Ms M’orzz had, and gone on to balance the equation wrong, messily scribbled it out when she realised and started over.

Ms M’orzz finally writes the correct answer on the board. Lena and Maggie were both right. Lena nods, almost to herself.

“Do you want to join our team?”

“What team?” 

Behind her Lucy whispers something that sounds like _Wildcats._

Lena rolls her eyes. “The school decathlon team.”

“What do you do?” Maggie asks. She’s half paying attention to the lesson, half focusing on Lena and Maggie is wary. She’s so, so wary after packing up and moving across the country and a strange kid asking her to join some team, some group of friends is ringing alarm bells. Even though Lena doesn’t know, and she’s not like the kids back in Nebraska who’d turn their backs on her instead of reaching out to make friends. And she was going to keep a low profile, keep her head down until she’s eighteen and free… but Lena looks so hopeful. She wants to keep Maggie around. 

“Tournaments, interschool, interstate, things like that. We’re like the brains to the basketball team’s brawn.”

“You should do it Sawyer,” Lucy teases, and Maggie jumps because she’d almost forgotten Lucy’s behind her. “Be Danvers’ perfect match.”

Maggie shakes her head, that horrible feeling in her gut that’s been weighing her down since New Year bubbling back up. “No. I’m sorry, I just started I don’t want to get caught up in anything new.”

“Really?” Lena visibly deflates. “Well, I’ll keep trying.”

“Sure.”

Maggie turns back to the board, refusing to look at Lucy or Lena, or think about Alex or New Year’s or anything that isn’t Ms M’orzz’s neat handwriting until the bell rings.

* * *

Jack stares at the wildcat statue, trying to figure out why he and Lucy, of all places, chose this spot to meet to walk to lunch. Sure it’s convenient, the equal halfway point between both of their fourth period classes, but the statue is ugly to say the very least. Mouth opened in a snarl, claws raised viciously. What even _is_ a wildcat anyway?

Shaking his head, Jack turns away from the statue, refusing to give it any more attention. It’s then that he notices the one and only Alex Danvers sneaking down the hallway with her head down. She weaves in and out of students with a precision that Jack envies. At five foot eleven and still growing, he can’t sneak anywhere.

She breaks free from the hallway into the wider area, walking straight past Jack and the wildcat statue, making a beeline for the sign up sheet area. She trawls past all of them until she gets to the one for the musical. It’s recognisable even from this far away, Jack can clearly make out Lucy’s name written across most of the sign up section. 

Alex is acting suspiciously no matter what, but when Jack sees her glance around awkwardly to make sure no one is watching her, it really piques his interest. Taking a step behind the statue to keep himself hidden, he watches as Alex reads through all the names on the sheet, finger tracing the page as she goes. There aren’t many names in the area for the leads. People had generally stopped trying for the lead roles, knowing that they always went to Jack and Lucy. But the supporting characters section had attracted a short list of names already throughout the morning. 

A group of boys break into raucous laughter as they pass behind Alex, and she rips her hand away from the sheet. She feigns disinterest in the board as a few of the boys high five her and talk about basketball. She looks panicked, veritably freaking out about getting caught looking into the musical by the boys, but if they notice they pay it no mind. 

When the boys move on, Alex chances one last glance at the sheet before ducking her head down, striding straight past Jack towards the cafeteria. 

He only gets to stare after her for a moment before Lucy appears, looking around for Jack. He steps out from behind the statue and grabs her arm, pulling her into the little nook. She stumbles, but rights herself quickly enough to smack Jack on the arm.  
“What the hell are you pulling me into hiding spots for?” She hisses. Jack rubs at his arm, though it didn’t really hurt, and looks at Lucy with an offended look.

“Rude.” 

“Whatever, just tell me what we’re doing here.”

“I just saw Alex reading through the sign up sheet.” 

Lucy frowns, glancing over her shoulder at the huge wall of flyers and sheets. “For the musical?”

“No, for krav maga. Of course for the musical, you chicken nugget.” 

Lucy’s frown drops into an unimpressed look for only a moment before she’s frowning again. 

“Why-“

“If you’re about to ask me why, I’m going to call you a chicken nugget again.”

Lucy huffs, smacking Jack on the arm again. She stalks over to the signup sheet, crossing her arms as she reads through the names that have appeared in the section below her own. 

“Well her name's not on here.” Lucy notes. “Neither is Sawyer’s.”

“Sawyer?”

“That new girl.” Lucy turns to face him now, a thoughtful look on her face. “She’s in my science class.” 

Lucy stares off into the middle distance, arms crossed and brow furrowed in thought. She stays that way for a full ten seconds, with no indication of stopping any time soon, and Jack can feel his stomach grumbling.  
He snaps his fingers in front of her face. “Earth to Lucy.”

“Hmm?” Lucy hums, still not quite focused on him. 

“What’s so special about this Sawyer?” He asks, flinching away playfully when Lucy’s expression hardens ever so slightly.

“Nothing.” Lucy snaps. “I don’t-“

Sighing, Lucy jerks her head, indicating for Jack to walk with her. 

“There’s something off about her. She’s so closed off and defensive. In class she picked up on a mistake M’gann made-“

“I don’t think Ms M’orzz likes it when you-“

“So she’s crazy smart.” Lucy pushes on, completely ignoring Jack. “Lena came over to offer her a spot on the decathlon team and she turned it down without hesitation. Said something about wanting to settle in. But she seemed so… guarded.” 

Jack laughs gently. “Perfect match for Alex Danvers then.” He jokes.

Lucy pretends to look hurt, holding a hand to her heart as they join the cafeteria line. Jack rolls his eyes.

“The little baby crush you have on Alex is cute, but for all we know, not feasible. Neither is this idea you have of her and Maggie for that matter.”

Lucy scoffs. “Why? Because she’s the jock and I’m the theatre geek?”

“No.” Jack drawls out. “Because for all we know, she’s straight.”

Lucy rolls her eyes, and Jack can’t help but mirror it. They’ve had this discussion plenty of times. Lucy strongly believes that Alex has either not realised she’s gay, or just hasn’t come out of the closet yet. And whilst Jack is inclined to agree with her, he’s also always been a strong advocate of letting people come out in their own time. 

“If she’s straight, then I’m the Pope.” Lucy grumbles. She turns away to pick up a tray. They pick up their lunches in silence and make their way to the theatre geeks regular table before they speak again, not wanting to be overheard by the general populace of students.

“I want to find out more about Maggie.” Lucy says abruptly as they sit down, tilting her head thoughtfully. “There’s something more to her.”

Jack rolls his eyes, for what feels like the thirteenth time in the past half hour, but nods as well. He’s long since learnt that when Lucy has her heart set on doing something, you’re best just grabbing on for dear life and riding it out. Lucy mumbles something about heading to the library before fifth period, and detention, starts for them both. 

Before he knows it, Lucy is forcing him to cram the last of his pizza down so she can drag him off down the hall to google the new girl.

* * *

Lucy huffs, pushing the keyboard angrily. “I can’t find anything!”

Jack nudges her chair with his foot, sending her rolling a few inches from the computer, earning himself a glare.

“I told you that you wouldn’t find anything.” He mumbles under his breath. Lucy shoots him another glare, but it’s softened by her frown.

She doesn’t get it. Researching people is her specialty, and yet Lucy hasn’t been able to find a single thing online about Maggie. She had thought there would at least be an article maybe, or a photo of an awards ceremony with the freaky genius girl. From what she’d seen of her notes, the girl definitely deserved it. 

Lucy is pulled from her thoughts by the sound of a muffled explosion. Jack squeaks, rolling his chair towards the opposite wall, glancing warily over his shoulder. From inside the library, she can clearly see Vasquez burst out into the hallway, rapidly stripping their flaming lab coat. Lena follows them out holding a fire extinguisher, dousing both the lab coat and Vasquez thoroughly. 

Lucy cackles as she hears Miss Grant dole detentions out to a sheepish looking Lena and Vasquez, who is still slightly smouldering. Jack giggles behind her. Turning back to smile ruefully at Jack, Lucy shakes her head and refocuses on the computer.  
Nothing is coming up for Maggie Sawyer on google, she is going to have to dig deeper. Pulling up Facebook, she logs in quickly and ignores the indignant scoff coming from her best friend.

“How do you have Facebook access at school?!”

Lucy grins slyly at him over her shoulder. “A girl has her secrets.”

“Did you threaten poor Winn?”

“No, I made out with Vasquez.”

Jack snorts, looking back out into the hallway where Vasquez is being reprimanded for a second time by Dr Stein. Lucy ignores him and types in Maggie’s name, scrolling through to find the correct profile.

“She’s already changed her location… and she’s only been here three days.” Lucy murmurs mostly to herself. Jack perks up at the information, finally interested now that they had might some progress. 

“Where was she before?”

Lucy scrolls a little further down. “Blue Springs, Nebraska. Also known as the middle of bum fuck nowhere.” 

Lucy pulls up google maps, typing in the name and hitting enter. The town is tiny, one elementary school, one combined middle and high school. It’s the kind of town where everyone knows everyone else, and gossip spreads like a bad STD. Lucy has a bad feeling about where this is going.

For a girl who has just moved across the country, there are an inordinate amount of posts on her wall from the past few days. She’s been sharing things left, right and centre since she moved. As Lucy scrolls further down, she figures out why. 

Maggie has been trying to spam out the messages people have been leaving on her wall. Even as she scrolls down, posts are disappearing like they are being deleted, but not quick enough for Lucy to miss what they say.

“I think she got outed.”

“What?” Jack scoots closer in, leaning over Lucy’s shoulder to read. The posts all over her wall are filled with slurs and hatred. People calling her every offensive name under the sun. 

Lucy keeps scrolling, her stomach rolling as she goes. She wishes she hadn’t had that extra slice of pizza. The posts just get worse and worse the further down she gets. There are likes and comments on every single one, enough that Lucy can tell that the entire town of Blue Springs had known about this. Whatever _this_ is. 

She scrolls a full week into the past, back to the day after New Year’s, and the posts suddenly stop. The very last post is from someone who is clearly a friend. Eliza Wilke had posted on her wall.

“Where are you? I went to your house and your dad said you were gone. What happened?” Lucy reads aloud, glancing at Jack. He mirrors her uneasy expression. They’re thigh deep in this now, and Lucy can’t turn back.

“Did Maggie reply?” Jack asks. Lucy turns back, clicking into the comments section to find out. They’re filled with slurs as well, some of the worse Lucy had seen so far. They must be the very first, as whatever had happened was still fresh. Then, in the midst of all the chaos, another lone soul had commented, another friend of Maggie’s. 

“Her parents caught her kissing a girl at New Year’s… she got kicked out.”

Lucy really does feel like she might throw up now. She slumps back in her chair, physically turning away from the screen in disgust. The exact thing Lucy has always feared of her own father had happened to Maggie Sawyer, and Lucy has been nothing but hostile towards her. 

“Shit.” Jack curses.

“Yeah.” Lucy mumbles her agreement, head in her hands. She felt horrible, not only for how she had been acting all day, but for everything that had happened to her. No one deserved that. 

With a sudden fierceness, Lucy turns back to the computer. She exits out of Facebook and clears her browser history before logging out. 

“We’re going to keep this to ourselves.” Lucy tells Jack sternly. “She didn’t deserve to be outed then, she still doesn’t deserve it now.”

Jack nods grimly. He stands to follow her out of the library, head down. They walk together to detention in silence.

* * *

Kara’s enjoying herself painting little details on the trunk of the big tree prop set in the middle of the room. Alex is bored out of her mind. She’s straddling one of the branches with her legs hanging down over the sides, feet swinging. 

“If you kick me in the head it’ll be your foot that breaks,” Kara warns.

Alex rolls her eyes, catching sight of Maggie further away in the corner. She’s not bothering with any of the tasks Ms Grant set, she’s just hunched over her books with Lena. She briefly makes eye contact with Alex, blushes and turns back to her books. Alex sighs.

“So what are you in detention for, Lena?” 

Alex can just hear Maggie’s voice over the low chatter filling the room. 

“Vas and I caused a minor explosion in the lab. Nothing life threatening, they were barely on fire.”

Maggie looks half concerned, half impressed. “How did you do it?”

Lena grins. “Well…”

Below Alex Ms Grant strides into the room followed by a sullen looking Jack and Lucy. Alex’s surprise must show on her face when the two of them pick a polystyrene boulder to paint instead of gloating and lackey-ing, because Ms Grant clears her throat and fixes Alex with a glare until she climbs down off the tree. 

“You are all doing wonderful work here, helping our Winter Musicale come to life. I want you all to learn not just your lesson, but how important art and music is to our community. It is important like not fighting with your classmates, or swearing like sailors on shore leave, or blowing things up on school property.” She glares pointedly at Vasquez, who quietly high fives Lena behind their back. “You’re all contributing to something good today, but please, I don’t want to see you back here in detention. You all have bright futures, or whatever.”

Ms Grant sweeps off to go check on a couple of students working on the backdrop and Lena chuckles next to Maggie. “She’s such a drama queen.”

“Good thing she teaches drama then.”

Maggie looks up to see Lucy towering over her for once, her arms folded. “Sawyer, can I talk to you?”

Maggie gestures at the seat next to her but Lucy shakes her head. “Outside.”

Lena rests a hand on Maggie’s shoulder. “You don’t have to go.”

Maggie smiles at her, as reassuring as she can manage with her stomach churning, and waves her off. “It’s okay. I’ll be back in a minute.”

The hallway is empty and quiet, and Maggie fidgets as the door swings shut leaving her and Lucy alone. Lucy’s leaning back against a locker with her arms folded, a weird look on her face that does nothing to put Maggie at ease. 

“What’s this about, La-”

“I know what happened.”

It feels like she’s been hit with a brick. 

“In Nebraska,” Lucy carries on. “I know your parents kicked you out-”

“Stop it.” Maggie snaps. She draws herself up as tall as she can, striding into Lucy’s space and to her credit Lucy doesn’t back down but she does shut up. “You don’t know a damn thing, Lane. You don’t know how scared I’ve been, how _lonely_ I feel. God I thought, I thought maybe it would be better here but you’re just like the rest of them. You can tell who you want, okay? You can laugh at the gay kid with your friends but I am _sick_ of running, and hiding, and pretending. You can’t threaten me with this.”

Lucy looks like Maggie slapped her. Maggie takes a deep breath, heart pounding. Her hands are shaking and she wants to sprint off down the corridor because oh god oh god Lucy knows now. But she doesn’t. She’s going to be brave. After all she’s been through, being kicked out, sent across the country to an aunt she barely knows, she’s not going to back down now. She knows what it’s like to have the whole school against her, she can live through it again.

“I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m not going to tell anyone you’re gay, Sawyer. Not like it matters here-”

Maggie scoffs. “Yeah, cos being gay is a-okay! Let’s throw a pride parade! You have no idea what it’s like not being straight.”

Lucy rolls her eyes. “I’m bi, dumbass.”

“You- you’re…”

“Bisexual. You need me to spell it out?”

“No, I know what it means.”

“It means I haven’t been kicked out and sent across the country but I know what you’re feeling. I know what it’s like to be scared, to want to shove that part of yourself deep down inside and I know what it’s like to have a general for a dad who’s _very_ supportive of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. I know Maggie. I won’t say anything.”

Lucy reaches out a hand and gently rubs Maggie’s arm. Maggie pulls away still reeling, her brain still trying to process thinking Lucy’s going to out her, to Lucy _coming out_ to her, and she shouldn’t still be feeling this wary when Lucy just offered this part of herself to her but she’s got years of pretending to be someone she’s not behind her, she’s not going to take someone’s pity now that she’s finally ready to be herself. 

“I don’t need your pity, Lane.”

Lucy looks outraged. “I’m sorry, _pity?”_

“I get it, you come out to make me feel better about being sent to the opposite side of the country, like that’s gonna make it all okay.”

“Sawyer what the hell?”

Lena’s suddenly at Maggie’s side, glaring at Lucy. “What’s going on here?” 

“Nothing.” Maggie growls. 

“I-” Lucy looks like she’s about to fight but when she sees Maggie’s face she backs down. “Yeah. Nothing.”

Lena nods. “Okay. Maggie, do you want to come back inside I want to show you something I found in the library.”

Maggie shoots Lucy one last hard look before letting Lena lead her away. “I’d love to, Lena. Thanks for being such a good friend.”

* * *

“Olsen, pick your feet up.” Coach J’onzz demands. James shoots him an annoyed glance, but grins a moment later at the dry look he receives in return. He glances around to try and find Alex and comes up empty, wondering where she’d disappeared off to, letting James and the team slack off.

J’onn trusts his basketball captain, enough that he lets her run practice without him always being present. But he usually liked to come and check in at the end of practice to make sure everything's running smoothly. Another cursory glance around reveals the absence of not one, but both Danvers’ sisters.

Blowing his whistle, J’onn calls the team back in to him. They form a line in front of him, all various stages of sweaty and panting. 

“In two weeks we have the biggest game of the season. Perhaps the biggest game of your high school careers.” He begins, strolling along the line of students. With all of them lined up, the Danvers’ are now very notably absent. Alex usually flanks him closely, staring down her teammates menacingly as he gives his regular, rousing speech. 

He reaches the end of the line, coming to stand in front of James. He’s the same height as J’onn, though still growing, and it allows for J’onn to look him directly in the eye.

“Where are Alex and Kara?” 

James grimaces, but doesn’t answer. His loyalty to protecting the Danvers’ is sweet. J’onn watches him wage a war in his head over whether to let slip the location of his friends, and decides to help him along.  
“Where are Alex and Kara, Olsen?” He asks a little more sharply, though not enough to actually scare the poor kid. 

James visibly startles and grimaces again. “Detention.”

“Who put them there?”

“Ms Grant.”

J’onn has to use all of his super-powered Martian strength to stop his eyes from rolling back into his head. Of course Cat Grant is the cause of Alex and Kara missing practice. Practice this close to an extremely important game, no less. 

J’onn waves James away, twirling his finger to put the team back to work as he stalks out of the gym. It takes him less than two minutes to make it down to the theatre, and when he sees his basketball captain flicking paint at her younger sister from atop a fake tree he has to fight back another eye roll.

“Ms Grant.” He projects his gruff coach voice all the way down the room, catching the attention of everyone on the stage. He makes his way down the aisle slowly, fixing Cat with a slight glare. “What in God’s name are those two doing in a _tree?”_

Cat narrows her eyes at him. She turns slowly to glare at Alex and J’onn watches as she slithers out of the tree with a guilty look on her face, and he gets the idea that this might not be the first time Ms Grant has glared her down from her perch in the last half hour.

“It’s called crime and punishment, Coach J’onzz. Besides, proximity to the arts is cleansing for the soul.”

“Can we talk… please.” J’onn mutters under his breath, waving Ms Grant down from the stage and towards the door. He thinks it best this talk happen in front of a third party. 

He smiles politely as Ms Grant waltzes past him before turning on the two Danvers’. “And you two. In the gym, _now.”_

J’onn fixes Alex and Kara with what they usually refer to as the ‘dad’ look and shoos them out of the theatre and into the hallway. “I want ninety points on the board by the time I get back.” 

Alex starts to groan before she catches J’onn’s expression.

“Ninety. Got it, coach.” She sighs, following after Kara towards the gym.

* * *

Olivia can’t hold back her sigh when the knock on her door turns out to be Cat and J’onn. _Again._

The feud over sports and theatre is the most frustrating Olivia has ever had to deal with in her four years as principal of National City East High. Cat shoots her a smile as she enters, the kind of smile that might be dangerous elsewhere. But Olivia schools her features and smiles kindly- professionally - at the both of them.

“What can I do for you both?”

“You could tell Ms Grant that it’s inappropriate to take my basketball captain, and team members away from practice two weeks before the final.”

“Coach J’onzz, your basketball captain was fighting in my home room. I was simply seeing the punishment through for their crime.” Cat snipes back before Olivia can even take a breath.

J’onn rolls his eyes and mutters. “She punched a bigot in the mouth.” 

He falters when he sees Olivia’s glare. “W-which- we should never condone fighting. But punish them in their own time. Not my practice time.”

Olivia grits her teeth at the reminder of Mr Mxyzptlk’s visit earlier that morning. Shaking her head, she clears her throat before Cat can start up again.

“I think,” Olivia pins Cat with a gentle stare. “That is an entirely reasonable request. The basketball team has practice to do for the final in two weeks. You can make Alex and Kara Danvers paint sets during a different free period.”

J’onn grins at her while Cat fumes silently. Olivia chats with J’onn happily for a moment, asking about the progress of the team and how they were shaping up for the final before J’onn excuses himself to head back to practice. Olivia lets out a heavy sigh before she turns to face the music.

“Honey-“

“Why do you favour the sports teams?”

“Because, darling…” Olivia trails off, standing to round her desk and wrap her arms around Cat’s waist. “I’m trying not to show favour to _you.”_

“Because…?” Cat looks up at her with the fakest look of innocence Olivia thinks she has ever seen, and she’s been a teacher and a principal for over a decade.

Olivia leans down to peck Cat on the lips. “Because I _do_ favour you.”

That seems to satisfy Cat. She smiles dazzlingly and kisses Olivia in return before gliding out of the room with a hasty ‘see you at home’ tossed over her shoulder. 

Slumping back down in her chair, Olivia hopes that’s the last she see’s of this Theatre versus Sports feud until the summer break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're also on tumblr: [@letswreakhavoc](http://letswreakhavoc.tumblr.com) and [@salamadersaurus-rex](http://salamadersaurus-rex.tumblr.com)


	4. Straight Shooter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The basketball team practices, Maggie and Lena get closer, J'onn Knows™ and Alex is torn between the game and the girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my first summary for this chapter was 'Ball is life but Alex is a lesbian...' and even though I changed my mind, I still need everyone to see it. In other news, sorry it took so long for this one to come out. Rex and I are in very different timezones so it's been a struggle sorting out time with Uni, Jobs, travel and other such things. hopefully we can get another chapter out within a few weeks for ya'll so stay tuned homies.

Kara wakes Alex up early by flinging herself onto the bed so hard Alex almost hits the ceiling. Kara cackles, catching a bleary-eyed, very confused Alex in her arms and depositing her upright on the floor. 

“Why?”

“Ten more days til the big game!”

Alex groans. “Don’t remind me.”

Kara’s big grin fades and she gently puts her hand on Alex’s shoulder. “I know everyone’s being tough on you about this game, Eliza, J’onn… yourself. It’s okay if you want to take a break.”

Alex shrugs Kara’s hand off, grabbing her stuff for the bathroom. “And do what?” 

“Audition for the musical, maybe? You were talking about it and Alex, you can sing. Why don’t you go for it.?”

“Because it’s ten days til the big game,” Alex snaps, and slams the door to the bathroom closed behind her. 

After a half hour shower Alex has cooled off, and when she comes downstairs for breakfast she wraps her arms around a morose Kara’s shoulders and whispers “I’m sorry,” quiet enough that only an alien can hear. 

Kara smiles up at her and offers the can of whipped cream for Alex to squirt on her pancakes. Eliza wanders over, dropping a kiss on Alex’s head. She waves out the window and Alex looks up from her breakfast in time to see Winn slouch through the door. He limps to the table and Eliza is on him in a moment, hands on his shoulders checking if he’s okay. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I j-just walked into a door. You know me.”

Eliza ruffles his hair. “We should wrap you in bubble wrap.”

Winn chuckles. “Ms Grant would pop it all so I can play the piano.”

Kara slides an empty plate across the table to him and Eliza gets him a stack of pancakes. It’s not long before he’s finished them and the three are ready for school. Alex ducks out of the door before Eliza can say anything about the game, waiting outside for her to fuss over Kara and Winn. 

The walk to school is uneventful. When they get to homeroom Mxy is sat sullenly in his seat. He doesn’t make eye contact with any of them, and flinches when Alex purposely swings her arm in his face. He’d been suspended for three days after misgendering Winn and threatened with expulsion if he tried to spread hate again. Alex had made sure he knew she’d break his nose if he even looked the wrong way at Winn. 

Ms Grant shoos Winn and Kara out as she comes striding into the room, but not before she reminds Kara there are still open spots to audition for the musical. 

“That goes for you lot too,” Ms Grant tells the room. “Spaces are still available for Monday’s auditions.”

She lets her piercing gaze wander over the class, most of the students trying their hardest to avoid making eye contact. She nods at Lucy and Jack sat in the corner and they smile back. Ms Grant sighs when she catches sight of Vasquez’s raised hand. 

“Yes?”

“Does either of the lead roles involve kissing pretty girls?” 

Vas winks at Lucy and Lucy smirks back. Jack fakes a shocked look, his mouth hanging open and pain in his eyes. “Are you cheating on me, Lucy?”

Lucy smacks his arm. “Quit ruining my game, Spheer,” she hisses. “Besides, kissing you is like kissing my brother. No offence.”

Jack claps both hands over his heart. “Oh Luke, now I know what you felt when Leia chose Han.”

“Sweet,” Vas pumps their fist. “I’m Han Solo.”

Lucy bites the tip of her finger. “Do you think Vas would wear a vest for me?” she asks in an exaggerated stage whisper. 

Vasquez winks and makes finger guns at Lucy. At the front of the class Ms Grant clears her throat. 

“Are you two finished?”

Lucy laughs and she and Vasquez nod. “Sorry.”

“Save the theatrics for the theatre,” Ms Grant sighs. 

She carries on taking the roll. At her desk, Maggie’s hair is curtaining her face, her shoulders hunched over like she wants nothing more in the world than to not be in the room. Alex feels the same. Half of her wanted to laugh along with the rest of the class at Lucy and Vasquez’s banter. The other half was screaming at her to stay quiet, ten days til the big game and the scouts _could not know._

Maggie’s heart is racing. She’s shocked, so unused to hearing two people having such an open, joking conversation about their attraction to girls and not being torn to shreds. For a moment she was terrified for Lucy and Vasquez, waiting for the class to turn on them. Then they started laughing, playfully groaning as if the flirtatious banter was something the two did everyday. Maggie can barely get past the fact the thing that sent her across the country is _normal_ here.

Maggie can’t keep her eyes still, gaze hopping round the room still half scared something will happen. She catches sight of Alex hunched over her desk, the same deer-in-the-headlights look on her face Maggie knows is on hers. Maggie thinks back to that night, New Years Eve. The way Alex was so quietly confident, all easy smiles and Maggie figured Alex was just experimenting. Getting her lesbian experience out the way before college because Alex Danvers is nothing if not an overachiever but… she looks scared. 

The bell rings, putting an abrupt halt to everything. Alex blinks away her fear, her eyes just catching Maggie’s as she hurries out the room and leaving Maggie’s quiet _are you okay_ hanging in the space behind the closing door.

* * *

Alex shoots baskets until her arms won’t cooperate anymore. And then she keeps shooting. She can feel J’onn’s eyes trained on her, following as she weaves in and out of the other players to score another two points for her team. Keeping her head down, she avoids his knowing gaze as she jogs back the length of the court, getting ready to start the next play.

“Wildcats.” J’onn calls, loud enough to get everyone’s attention. The team runs to line up in front of him, panting and shaking their limbs out. Alex rolls her eyes before joining them, still pointedly ignoring J’onn’s stare. 

“The West High Knights have knocked us out of the playoffs three years running, and now we are one week from taking that championship right back from them. It’s time to make our stand.” J’onn paces along in front of the team, making sure to pause long enough to give them all a pointed look. He waxes on about being a team, working together and supporting each other. But as he nears the end of line, his tone changes slightly.

“But at the end of the day,” J’onn starts, and Alex stares at her feet. “The team is only as good as each one of its members. Remember to look after yourselves. This is a big game, yes… but it shouldn’t come at the expense of any or you and your health. Look after yourselves. Don’t compromise yourself for the game.”

J’onn reaches the end of the line, standing directly in front of Alex and forcing her eyes up to meet his. 

“Practice hard, and play hard. Enjoy your free time and don’t push yourselves too far. Because that’s how we lose.” J’onn places a hand on Alex’s shoulder, and she’s not sure whether she feels inspired or trapped. J’onn starts his walk back down the rest of the line, continuing on about making sure the team are true to themselves, making sure they’re here for not only the game, but for the fun as well. Alex often forgets the man is a telepath. 

She doesn’t know what to make of J’onn’s speech. The first half was easy enough. The big game is coming up, so they need to focus. But the second half had tapered off into something personal. Something that felt directly targeted at her. Surely, J’onn couldn’t know about her. About… Maggie.

Alex remembers again with a jolt that her coach is a telepathic alien and he most definitely knows about Maggie. Forcing herself to swallow her panic, she directs the team back into their split sides, continuing the game of half court she had set up before the break and she tags herself out with the reserve player. She can feels J’onn’s eyes on her back as she ducks into the changing room. 

The door swings shut behind her and she stalks to her locker. Her hands are shaking and Alex is pretty sure it’s not panic surging up in her throat, but bile. She reaches her locker and starts pulling out her things. When she gets to her backpack, one of the straps snags on the door of the locker and her schoolwork spills all over the floor.

“Fuck.” Alex shouts, slamming her locker shut and punching it once. She collapses onto the bench behind her and buries her face in her hands. She’s not going to cry, she’s not. J’onn knows, and that’s fine, because J’onn loves her. But if he had managed to figure it out, then so will Eliza. After Eliza comes her friends, and the rest of the school, and before she knows it those Stanford scouts are going to know she’s a raging lesbian.

And she knows. She knows it’s 2017 and no one really cares anymore about who you love or what you wear. But nothing can stop the knot of dread that forms in her stomach when she thinks about what could happen if they were to find out she were anything but a normal high schooler. If she weren’t the perfect daughter, perfect student, perfect basketball captain for her team. 

With a deep shuddering breath, Alex drops to her knees to gather up her stuff. She places it all back into her bag carefully, making sure she doesn’t ruin any of her meticulous notes. Placing the bag back into her locker, she picks up her clothes and her shower bag and stalks off to get clean before she has to face the rest of her day. And she tries not to think about the way Maggie had looked at her in concern, in care this morning when she had bolted out of home room.

* * *

Maggie has her head down. It’s habit formed from Blue Springs. Keep herself under the radar and no one will come after her. She’s buried in her timetable, still getting used to the layout of the school, on her way to her next class when she senses someone just out of her field of vision. She keeps walking for a few steps before spinning to see who’s following her.

Lena looks visibly startled when Maggie rounds on her, and actually flinches a little when Maggie draws herself up to her full height, which is admittedly not that tall, and tries to look confident. 

“Oh.” Maggie says when she realises who it is. She deflates slightly. “Sorry, I was- uh… bad habit.” 

Lena waves it off. “It’s fine, I did kind of sneak up on you.” Then she smiles. “Do you need help finding something?” 

“I’ve got to go see the career counsellor? Know where I’d find them?” Maggie asks. Lena seems nice, despite the rumours she’d heard floating around about her. Everyone in their grade seemed to think she was cold and bitchy, but Maggie thinks she just might be misunderstood. Someone had told her that she’d skipped a grade, and Lena was actually fifteen years old, not sixteen or seventeen like the rest of the juniors. It serves to cut her off from most the grade, and the fact that she’s a veritable genius probably doesn’t help other kids to relate to her well.

Lena smiles and waves Maggie for her to follow, weaving in and out of the crowds of students. She falls into step beside Lena, and smiles when Lena glances at her out of the corner of her eye. She looks nervous.

“There’s no chance you would have reconsidered my offer, right?” Lena asks quietly, and Maggie has to wrack her brains for a moment to figure out what she means. 

“You- oh! The decathlon team.”

“Yeah.” she looks at Maggie hopefully. “So?”

Maggie bites her lip. “I, uh-”

She’s cut off by a burst of raucous laughter from the end of the corridor. She and Lena look up to see the basketball team tumbling round the corner. They’re fresh from practice, hair damp from the shower, and crowded around Kara and Alex. Kara must say something funny because the team bursts out laughing again. Alex is the only one who doesn’t laugh. She looks lost in thought.

“Ugh, they’re so annoying,” Lena grumbles.”Just because you can kick a ball through a hoop doesn’t mean you get to act like animals.”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works.”

“Whatever. Jocks.”

“Not a Wildcats fan?” 

“They’re so obnoxious.”

Maggie takes a second to observe the team. None of them have noticed that they’re being watched. Most of them are goofing around, laughing at jokes and playfully shoving at each other. Kara and Alex, still in the middle of them all, are both a little more reserved. Kara seems to be carrying herself carefully, like she’s trying a little too hard to make sure she isn’t touching anyone. She isn’t joining in on the playful fights, but she lights up with laughter as her friends muck around. Alex is still lost in thought, her eyes down and her forehead scrunched up. She looks stressed, and Maggie has to tamp down on the need to go over and offer her some help, or comfort.

“I don’t know… I guess some of them are.” Maggie murmurs absentmindedly. “The captain is kind of hot.”

She doesn’t mean to say it. Really. It’s a complete slip of the tongue and the moment Maggie registers exactly what she’s just let slip out of her mouth she freezes up. There is a split second of silence that feels like it might stretch on for a lifetime before Lena laughs. It’s a loud, startled laugh and it makes Maggie jump before she starts to relax.

“I wouldn’t disagree with you there. Though she isn’t really my type…” Lena trails off then, and Maggie is sure if she followed her line of sight, it would land directly on Kara instead of Alex. And yes, Kara is cute, but Maggie isn’t into the bubbly, bright blonde thing in general.

Maggie grins, albeit shakily, and actually finds it in herself to banter back with Lena. “Well at least we won’t be fighting over them.” 

Lena laughs loud and full again. “If only, huh?”

Maggie quirks her eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Lena looks over at the team, watching as they round a corner and head towards building B. 

“As far as the rumour mill goes, both of them are straight.” Lena sighs.

Maggie’s furrowed brow shoots straight into her hairline. Pun intended. 

“Straight?” 

Lena nods. “Especially Alex. Straight shooter that one. Doesn’t even really date. Josh, the football team’s star quarterback, asked her to the dance last year and she turned him down.”

Maggie’s jaw goes slack. “Did she- was she-”

“Go with someone else?” Lena finishes, and Maggie nods. “She said she was going with Kara and some other girls on the basketball team but she never actually showed up. Stayed home to study, apparently.”

Maggie shoots Lena a confused look. 

“Doesn’t the dance usually happen after exams?” She thought that was pretty universal for most schools in the US.

“It does.’ Lena says with raised eyebrows, indicating she was just as confused as Maggie is right now. 

Straight.

It throws Maggie through a bit of a loop. Because at New Years, out on the balcony, with Alex’s lips against hers, she really didn’t come across all that straight. She hadn’t even really come across like a baby gay. A little nervous, it was adorable really, but nothing like a closet case.

“So as much as all the resident queers, mostly Lucy Lane, would like to climb that tree…” Lena shrugs her shoulders. 

“Wow.” It’s lame, but it’s all Maggie can really come up with. Lena walks her to the career counsellor, debating hotly with her about the decathlon team and why joining is _really really worth it, I promise._

“Just think about it?” Lena begs, and Maggie can feel her self control waning. She likes Lena, and she could probably use some friends if she has to finish her high school career in National City. Lena is looking at her with puppy dog eyes and a slight pout, and she really doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would stoop to a tactic like pouting, so she really must be desperate.

Maggie sighs. “I’ll think about it.”

Lena grins, her whole face lighting up. She bounces happily on her toes and claps.

“Amazing. I’ll come and find you tomorrow!” With a final grin and a wave, Lena skips back down the hallway, leaving Maggie at the door of the career counsellor. He looks up at her through the glass of the window and waves her in. Back to reality, then.

* * *

J’onn drives Alex and Kara home after school, and Alex can feel the terror in her body the entire way. She’s waiting for J’onn to say something, anything, during the car ride. But he just drives them home silently, smiling and nodding along with Kara’s story about her english class. 

Alex is out of the car like a shot as soon as it comes to a complete stop. She can hear Kara calling after her, but ignores her as she bolts up the steps and into their house. She manages to make it up into her bedroom before Kara catches up, and she shuts the door just a little too loudly and flops down onto her bed with a groan.

She’s only earned herself about five minutes of peace before she has to get changed and go outside to practice with J’onn and Kara. She can hear them through the walls, Eliza chatting with J’onn and putting together some snacks for them after they practice. Kara is eerily silent, and Alex knows it’s probably because she’s worried. After J’onn’s speech in practice today she’s been freaking out. She knows Kara can tell.

She counts out her five minutes of peace by the second in her head before dragging herself up to change into some shorts and a tank top. J’onn and Kara are already outside doing passing drills at a human speed while they wait for her. She grabs her water bottle from the cupboard first and fills it up with cold water from the fridge. Anything she can do to stall just a little longer.

Much to her relief, J’onn still doesn’t mention anything when she finally joins them outside. He lifts his eyebrow in his annoying, knowing, dad-like way but simply throws her the ball and gestures her forward. 

Basketball is simple. It’s easy. She knows what she needs to do and she can do it damn well, if she says so herself. When she’s focused, that is. 

They run drills for over an hour, Kara and Alex swapping out to do single drills, as well as working together. Eliza watches on from the side of the court, under the shade of a tree and a big floppy hat. She has a book in her hands, though Alex only catches her reading it a few times. Instead she mostly watches Kara and Alex practice. She claps and cheers for Kara when J’onn compliments her on a good play, on keeping her strength and speed in check. She tuts and shakes her head when J’onn tells Alex she needs to pick her feet up, needs to move faster. 

As the sun begins to set, their practice winds down and turns into more goofing around than anything else. Alex manages to get two baskets with J’onn guarding her, and she grins cockily at him when Kara gets the third and wins the half court game for them.

“Come on, old man.” Alex snarks, passing the ball to J’onn for him to start the next play. 

J’onn raises an eyebrow. “Old man, huh?”

“What would you call three hundred years old, then?” Alex shrugs. She looks J’onn dead in the eyes as she fakes toward the left and then bolts right to take the ball right out of J’onn’s hand. She dribbles it back to the edge of the half court and then bounce passes it straight to Kara, who turns and scores three points to win the play again. 

“Well, old man or not,” J’onn catches the ball on the rebound and passes it to Alex. “I’ve still got you beat.”

Alex scoffs. She dribbles the ball for a few seconds as she scans the court to figure out her play, but before she can make a move J’onn has taken the ball from her. He dribbles it down the court and leaps up to dunk it.

Alex rolls her eyes. “Show off.” 

J’onn just shrugs. “300 years old just means I have 280 more years of experience on you.”

Alex rolls her eyes again, but laughs and nods. He isn’t wrong. J’onn sets Kara up quickly to run some dribbling drills to help her control her speed while he and Alex take a quick water break.

“How are you doing, Alex?”

The question is mundane and ordinary, but Alex can feel the weight behind his words. She knows she’s been projecting her fear and terror all day, and even if J’onn doesn’t actively try and read people’s minds, sometimes he can’t help but pick up the really loud feelings. And her feelings have been especially loud. 

Dread curls in her gut, and she tries to shrug it off.

“Fine.”

J’onn doesn’t say anything, and Alex knows if she had the nerve to look up at him, he’d have his stupid eyebrow raised in the all knowing dad way again. 

“Fine, huh?”

Alex sighs, and shrugs. She runs a hand through her sweaty hair and takes the few moments it takes to gulp down some water to try and form a response. 

“Just working towards the game.” Alex ends up saying, and it’s so lame that J’onn doesn’t even bother trying to keep up the pretense now.

“What’s really going on, Alex?” He asks. He turns to face her, eyes boring into the side of her head as she refuses to look up at him.

She shrugs, and stutters for a moment. Then she drops her head into her hands and sighs.

“Do you ever want to try something new, but you’re afraid of what people are going to think?”

J’onn is quiet for a moment, a measuring stare in place as Alex waits for his answer. 

“Has this got to do with Maggie?”

“What- how do you know-” Alex stutters, and she can feel the panic brewing in her chest.

“Your thoughts are pretty loud, Alex. I have a hard time shutting them out sometimes. Especially when they’re about Ms Sawyer.”

Alex can feel her face burning up, and she stumbles for an excuse, a reason, anything. But before she can descend into a complete panic attack, J’onn lays a hand on her shoulder. It’s tight, and heavy on her skin, but it gives her a comfort that only J’onn can give her, since her dad died. 

“Alex. There’s nothing wrong with being different. In fact, it’s what separates you from the crowd. It’s what raises you up above them. It’s what makes you Alex.” J’onn smiles gently at her, and shrugs slightly. “And I don’t know about anyone else. But I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

Alex’s face burns for an entirely different reason. She sniffs loudly, and rocks into J’onn’s chest for a brief, sweaty hug. 

“And as for trying new things… I think it’s actually a good idea.” J’onn continues. “There’s nothing wrong with following your heart, and your interests. Even if they’re a little different to what people might normally expect of you.”

Alex nods, and fights valiantly at the tears that sting behind her eyes.

“Thanks, J’onn.”

J’onn’s eyes crinkle under the force of his smile. “Anytime, Alex. I mean it.”

J’onn claps his hands together, bringing them both out of their quiet moment. 

“Now,” He turns back to the court, where Kara is finishing her last drill. “How about you take a knee Alex, and Kara and I will play a few… advanced games.”

Kara lets out an excited squeak. She super speeds over to dunk the ball into the basket. J’onn rolls his eyes. He turns towards Kara as his body is engulfed in red, and a moment later he towers over them all in his martian form. 

Alex tries to keep up with them for a few seconds, tries to join in, but her human eyes can barely track them as they bounce around the court at incredible speeds. A moment later Alex finds herself deposited on the grass near Eliza’s chair. Kara stays still long enough to smile and ruffle Alex’s sweaty hair before she speeds back to the court to try and keep J’onn from scoring on her. 

Alex watches them play as best she can, and soaks up the fading sunlight.

“How are your classes going, dear?” Eliza’s voice breaks into her peaceful reverie, and the fear and dread come scurrying back into the pit of her stomach.

“Fine, Mom.”

“Just fine?”

Alex wants to roll her eyes, but she knows she’ll get in trouble. “They’re good. Ms M’orzz is giving me extra credit to tutor some freshman, and my english essay draft is ready to submit.”

“That’s good. I’m glad you’re keeping up. You have to make sure you’re balancing your time well between studying and basketball. The scouts coming to the game next week will want to see you excelling in both.” Eliza tells her, like Alex doesn’t already know that. She’s been obsessing over this game all year, and she’s been obsessing over college for the last three.

“Yes, Mom.” 

“It’s your whole future on a platter, Alexandra.” Eliza warns her gravely. “Don’t mess it up by getting distracted.”

Alex’s stomach rolls heavily, her eyes unblinking as they stare up into the quickly darkening sky.

“I won’t.”


End file.
